The Moultries

My little sun baby

2011-06-14T17:01:00.000-07:00

Maddie and Jeni have been the best helpers with their new little sister. They wanted to help me give Charity a bath the other day. They each took turns wiping her with a nice warm wash cloth since we can't put her in the tub until the last of her umbilical cord falls off. One would wash her while the other manned the camera. Gracie wanted to get in on the action too. She helped me wash Charity's hair.

When we finished her bath it was still bright and sunny outside (unusual with our crazy weather we are having right now!) so I laid a towel in front of the window, covered Charity's eyes with a hat and laid her in the sunlight to help clear up the newborn jaundice she has.

She didn't like her bath at all but she loved laying in the sunlight. Once the sun warmed her up she was totally relaxed and let me rub her down with lotion without a fuss. A couple of short sessions in the sunlight made an amazing difference in her color! She is a pretty little pink baby now!

Making blocks

2011-06-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

You know the old adage about giving a child a present and they would rather play with the box? We had such a moment at our house last week. We got a package and Nathan was dying to open it. He ran and got a little knife and with careful supervision he soon had the package unloaded. I asked him to put the knife away and then went to give Charity a bath. A few minutes later I came back in the room and he and Grace were busy cutting "blocks" out of the packing foam! I had one of those "what-do-I-do-as-a-responsible-parent" moments. Do I freak out and snatch the knife away with a stern lecture about the dangers of sharp, pointy objects? Or do I let him continue on with his careful cutting and let him practice a new skill that was obviously bringing him great joy? In the end I settled somewhere in the middle. With some instructions and many "Be careful!"s from me I let him keep cutting. Maybe that earns me the bad Mom of the Year award but I figure it's a skill he needs to learn at some point and the foam was a good medium for it.

He and Grace had so much fun with their blocks. He would cut them and she would stack them up or pile them back in the box. She would find one that was too big and toss it back to Nathan so he could cut it smaller. They played and played with those silly blocks. They were all pretty small by the time Nathan was finished with them.

Eventually the blocks got small enough that I made Nathan give me the knife and call the project finished. But we made it through without a single cut or scratch, some new skills learned and an afternoon of cheap entertainment for Nathan and Grace.

Announcing the arrival of...

2011-05-31T14:27:00.001-07:00

our little girl! Charity Rose was born the day before my scheduled c-section. She didn't want to wait any longer I guess. Tuesday morning I woke up with contractions at 1:00 am or so. I couldn't go back to sleep because they just kept getting stronger, but not regular enough to go to the hospital. They varied from 5-25 minutes apart. When daylight finally arrived I got up sent the kids to school, Bob to work and took a warm bath to hopefully settle things down. It helped and the contractions stopped during the morning. By that afternoon they were starting up again but very random. We ordered pizza for dinner because I wasn't up to anything else and then we headed out to Nathan's Joy School graduation that evening. It was really cute and he had a great time.

When we got home I climbed into another hot bath to see if that would help anything and then went to bed. As soon as I laid down though the contractions really started to build intensity and were more frequent but still not as close together as the doctor had suggested before I headed off to the hospital. But the longer I laid there, the more they hurt and then the baby started it's evening gymnastics which pushed me over the edge. I couldn't take another night of this! I went downstairs and cried on Bob for a while and then called the hospital about 11:30. They said for me to come in and get things checked out. We called Bob's sister to come and stay with the kids and got to the hospital about 12:15 am Wednesday morning. Can I just say that security in the hospital has stepped up a lot since I was there last?! Bob started filling out forms while I waited for someone from Labor and Delivery to come and get me and escort me upstairs.

After they monitored me for a while and my doctor, who just happened to be at the hospital for another delivery finished up, they prepped me for a c-section and rolled me into the OR. Charity Rose arrived at 4:04 am on Wednesday May 25th. She weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 19.5 inches long and beautiful in every way! She had a very healthy set of lungs which she started using as soon as they pulled her out and didn't stop crying until they got her into the nursery and bundled up.

I love pictures of Bob's big hand on the little tiny babies. I always forget how truly tiny newborns are.

Maddie and Jeni couldn't wait to come and see their newest little sister as soon as they got home from school.

Grace didn't even notice the baby at first until someone passed her back to me. She has been fascinated with "Daridy" ever since then. She is the best little helper and wants to be around the baby all the time. Her favorite thing is to help me with Charity's binky by going and getting it for me. Then she drops it a few times, sucks on it a few times herself, plays with it and then finally goes and washes it in the bathtub for me. Sometimes it takes a while to get a binky clean enough to actually give to Charity!!

It's finally time to go home!

Nathan on the other hand really didn't want much to do with the baby at first. It took him a few days to warm up to her enough to want to hold her. But now that he has you can see that he loves her a lot!

Welcome to our family Charity Rose!!

Nathan's last Joy School Graduation

2011-05-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

Nathan graduated from Joy School last Tuesday night. This is his third and final graduation as he will go to full time Kindergarten next year. He has enjoyed his Joy School experience very much and so have I. It's a great program that I have really come to love! I love that it is so focused on values and experiences rather than academics. I feel like those will come soon enough! Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from his graduation.
He had four other kids in his class: Luke, Nina, Lydia and Camille. It was fun to get to know some new friends this year.
Nathan will go to Kindergarten this year and Grace is a little young for Joy School so I will take a year off and then we'll do it all again!

Girls night/day out and a surprise!

2011-05-31T11:52:00.000-07:00

Bob and Nathan went on a father/son stake camp out a couple of weekends ago so me and the girls decided we wanted to have some girl fun together too. We had a nice dinner at home followed by a special dessert of apple slices, peanut butter, sugar and carmel that Jeni created for us. Then we watched a chick flick that Maddie picked! I was pretty tired after that so we all piled into my room for a sleepover. I woke up during the night with some contractions and debated if I needed to call Bob and have him come home early. But they eventually quit so I went back to sleep and Bob and Nathan finished their camp out!

The next morning I woke up tired and sore but the contractions were gone. After I had a warm bath we dropped Gracie off with my parents and headed out to get a pedicure! The girls were so excited! We ended up in a cute little spa that had a couple of pedicure chairs for kids. Jeni had a big teddy bear and Maddie had the princess chair. The girls got flowers and diamonds on their toes but the girl who was doing my pedicure had something else in mind for my toes. She painted on the cutest little baby feet and polka dots. They are darling! What is it about a pedicure that makes you feel so good? And pretty? Especially when I can't even reach my own toes anymore!

Later that afternoon I was suppose to go to a baby shower for one of the sisters in my ward. My friend Maegan came and picked me up and away we went. As soon as we got there she turned to me and told me that this shower was not only for Catherine but it was a surprise shower for me too!! It was a total surprise! I mean first of all, who expects a shower for baby number five and then, even though they passed out the "surprise" invitations in Relief Society right in front of me (they gave me a special one they printed just for me) no one said anything to me! Not even Bob, who isn't always the best secret keeper when it comes to fun stuff like this and Maddie and Jeni. It was such a wonderful surprise! It was fun to sit and visit, eat and open presents! My baby will have some new things to wear now and not just stained, used three or four times already stuff! It was a great afternoon and it meant so much to me that they would care enough to do this for me and my baby.

Thank you so much to everyone involved! It was wonderful!

Half way there!

2011-01-14T12:19:00.000-08:00

Today marks 20 weeks or the half-way point of my pregnancy. Now that the morning sickness has mostly passed I can't believe how quickly this is going! Anyway, Bob and I went in for the ultrasound on January 7th and got to see our little one kicking and squirming and generally looking like a healthy little baby should.
This is a profile picture of the baby. I can't tell if his/her mouth is open in a yawn or if it's the chin tucked down by the chest. What do you think?

This is a picture of the baby's arms crossed in front of it's face.

Here is a picture of the baby's face although it looks like a skull to me, spooky and sweet all at the same time!

We are going to wait until the delivery to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. We did that with Grace and it was so much fun! When I got home Nathan told me that the pictures all look boyish to him but on the other hand there is some study that has been done that predicts the gender of the baby 97% of the time by what side the placenta is on. Supposedly the placenta on the right is a boy 97% of the time and on the left is a girl. Guess what side my placenta is on? Very definitely on the left! So we will have to wait and see if the study is right and the Moultrie tendencies to have lots of girls will continue on or if Nathan's prediction of a boy (no more "dumb old girls" for him) will win out! Can't wait for the end of May!!!

December fun!

2010-12-17T18:40:00.001-08:00

One of our Christmas traditions the kids really look forward to is to make a gingerbread house. Years ago, before the advent of my children, I would put in hours making my own house and decorating it inside and out with lights and everything. But since children have come along I've found the Costco pre-made kit to be much more enjoyable and far less stressful for everyone involved! The kids had so much fun decorating everything.

Nathan and Grace worked together on the roof. At first Grace would get mad every time Nathan or I tried to stick any candy on. She would immediately pull it off and put it back in the bowl. I finally had a stroke of inspiration and asked her if she wanted to eat a piece. She did and then happily helped us put the rest of the candy on the house!

Maddie worked very hard to squeeze the thick, hard frosting onto the house. She made everyone promise that no one would "snitch" any candy!

The final results! What a cute house kids! This was the best the house looked because in less than 48 hours Grace had picked off ALL of the candy! The first 24 hours the frosting was still pretty soft but the second day she would come to me and tell me "finger hurt" and I knew what she had been up to! The hard, dry frosting didn't seem to slow her down too much though! Maddie felt pretty bad about the stripped down house so I told the kids that we might try and decorate again a few days before Christmas. We'll see how long round two lasts!

Some new additions

2010-12-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

It has been way too long since I blogged last but I do have an excuse which I will get to in a minute. John and Bethany's wedding was wonderful and sad in that we had to say goodbye to them since they decided to move across the country to Massachusetts. After the wedding Keri and Jeff packed up their family and took them back to Washington and life got back to normal, well for a minute anyway.

Right after Keri and Jeff got home came the happy announcement that they are expecting a baby on April Fool's Day next year - an excellent due date for an unexpected addition! Now, anyone who knows how my sister and I operate will know what happens next. One month later I was not surprised to find out that I am also pregnant!!! My due date is June 3rd. All of our children are between 12 days and 9 months apart, so these little cousins will be no exception at approximately 8 weeks apart!

The happy news got even better when a month later Steve and Sarah announced that they are joining the parenting parade too. Sarah is due on July 2nd! These cousins are going to have a ball when they all get together! My parents are thrilled with the idea of 3 new grand babies next year! We'll all keep them busy.

So anyway, I haven't been blogging because I haven't been feeling well but I think the morning sickness is finally starting to fade and I'm starting to feel a little more human again! Yay!!

John and Bethany's Wedding

2010-09-06T16:18:00.001-07:00

My brother John got married to Bethany on August 21st. It was a beautiful day! Gracie and "Warla" (that's how Grace says Laura) were so cute running around in their pretty dresses. The wedding was outdoors and they had water misters going which the two little girls didn't like. They would sit down and pull their skirt overlays up over their heads to keep the mist off. Nathan was a very handsome ring bearer who did his job just right!

Jeni made a very lovely flower girl.

Maddie and Amy were both junior bridesmaids. Here they were being goofy with Scott.

Here's the handsome groom with the judge.

Here comes the bride!

The judge started the ceremony by reading "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss. It was a great way to begin!

You may kiss your bride!

John and Bethany skipped back down the aisle!

Then it was on to pictures. This is my whole family except for my nephew Andrew who had disappeared. It turns out he was in the restroom so imagine him in the picture and it will be complete.

It was impossible to keep the little ones out of the reflecting pond!

Andrew, Nathan and Grace had fun playing together on the lawn while we were waiting for more pictures at the reception.

I love this family picture, even if Nathan is looking pretty sober!

Cutting the cake.

Maddie caught the bouquet. Again! What does this mean?!?

Nathan was fascinated by the cans on the back of Johns truck. Most of them were still full so it was fun to watch them drive away with the can's popping and spurting everywhere!

Congratulations John and Bethany! Have a wonderful life together!

The Amazing Race - Moultrie Family Edition!

2010-08-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

This year we ended our annual Moultrie Family Fun week with The Amazing Race. Dave and Becky divided us up into three teams (we were the red team) gave us a backpack full of clues and snacks and away we all went. Our first roadblock was to go to the grocery store to buy a package of bubblegum and see who could blow the biggest bubble. Not bad Bob! Then it was over to the high school where we had to "buddy walk" together on some boards. As you can see we didn't get off to a very good start! But once we got the hang of it we moved pretty quickly.

After that we headed to the mall to buy a cookie from Mrs. Fields. We got to the mall at 9:30 and found out they didn't open until 10:00! It was nice for us because we caught up to everyone else. Meanwhile, we had kids to entertain so we rode up and down the escalators and elevators...
...and found these fun carts for the kids to play in. I was amazed that Maddie could fold herself up enough to fit in one. She doesn't look very comfortable!
After purchasing our cookies (that we couldn't eat right away because they were required at a later checkpoint - what's up with that!?) we were off to the clock tower at Weber State.

Once there we found out we would have to wait around for 20 minutes until we could take a picture of the clock at 10:55. So Bob and I showed the kids around our old stomping grounds. The campus has changed a lot since I attended there!

Notice how delicately Grace holds on to Bob's ears when he gives her a shoulder ride! It always makes me laugh. As we were traveling the kids kept showing us how big they could blow their bubblegum bubbles. This is how Gracie blows her bubbles!

After the clock tower we had to brush up on our Pig Latin to determine the next roadblock was at the Willard Bay State Park sign.

After that we had to collect a bag of dirt from the Brigham City Temple lot.

Then we worked our way up to the Old Grist Mill in Logan where lucky Bob got to order and eat the sandwich we were required to order. Mustard, horseradish, onion, green peppers and pickles anyone?

Then after lunch we were off to Gosners to get some cheese curd. It was a good thing we had just had lunch because we were suppose to save the cheese curd for later as well!

After the cheese curd (and some asking around) we ended up at the Limberpine Trail where we got to go for a hike and take a picture in front of some trees that are almost 600 years old! The trail was beautiful, the temperature perfect and the kids whiny so after refreshing ourselves with some Fruit-by-the-foot we pressed on and completed the hike. The nice thing about being in last place was we felt free to take our time and enjoy the hike! It really was beautiful, especially the view of Bear Lake.

After we finished our hike and showed off our untouched Mrs. Fields cookies we were given our last clue which lead us to the Sherwood Hills Resort where we spent the night with everyone else. We had a fun evening playing in the pool with all the cousins and eating yummy stuff in Grandpa and Nana's room.

Grace found the perfect sized little perch in the hot tub so she could kick back and relax after all her hard work!

Thanks Dave and Becky! It was a lot of hard work for you but so much fun for the rest of us!

Deep fried adventures

2010-07-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went on a deep-frying kick. We made some homemade doughnuts that were absolutely wonderful so we decided to try some batter covered french fries. They were working out just fine but going a little slow so we got over-confident and put a bigger batch in the pot and all of a sudden the whole thing boiled over. We had hot oil everywhere! It was honestly a miracle that we didn't burn the house down! I don't know how the whole mess didn't catch on fire! Once everything cooled down we cleaned up the oil (it completely filled up the drip pan under two burners) and thought we had it all taken care of.

The next morning I baked something for breakfast and the oven filled the whole house with an awful burning oil smoke that made my eyes sting. It was terrible! We pried the top of the stove off and found more oil everywhere and even puddles of oil all over the floor. We cleaned it up the best we could but it kept leaking oil onto the floor. I didn't dare use my stove again so I called a repairman to come look at it. It turns out the oil had leaked down the oven vent and had also soaked into the insulation all around the oven box! It was going to take over $400 and a 2-4 week wait to get it back to a safe-to-use state. We decided to get a new stove instead.

We got a Maytag Gemini gas range. It has 5 burners on the top with the knobs down the side instead of across the front (no more kids playing with them!) and the double oven. I love it!

For some reason the kids love it too. They like showing it off to their friends and the other day I heard Nathan tell Maddie "Our new stove is so awesome that my eyes could fall out!" What!?! I think he must be thinking of a cartoon character that has it's eyes popping out in shock or alarm. What ever he meant our new range is so awesome that we have eyes falling out at our house!

The shock of a lifetime!

2010-05-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I sent Bob off to his Sunday bishopric meetings without a care. Sure I had to get myself and four kids ready and out the door to church by myself but I'm used to it and that's how life is. Oh, how unsuspecting I was that day when Bob called home just before noon to tell me he was on his way home to watch the kids because the bishop wanted to meet with me. Off I went with wet hair, no makeup and no idea what was about to happen. I felt pretty secure in my calling - I'd only been the second counselor in the primary for just over a year so I didn't really consider a new calling. Well, I got one. Relief Society President!?!?! Who, me? Apparently yes.

I went home and cried for the rest of the day. Then began the week of no sleep and difficulty eating because of the constant butterflies in my stomach. Oh yeah, and lots and lots of prayer! Things began settling a little bit when my counselors were decided on and called - I was amazed at how right it all felt and how much better I felt knowing I'm going to have good sisters at my side! Then came the sustaining and setting apart last Sunday. I stood up in sacrament meeting and tried my best to smile but I guess it didn't work too well because I received the following comments from three different people: "you looked so nervous","you were as white as a ghost" and "you looked like you were going to vomit!" Dang, I guess I didn't look as calm as I was trying for! Oh well.

After sacrament meeting we were set apart and the bishop gave me a beautiful blessing that reassured me that this is where I'm suppose to be and that the Lord will make me equal to this task. And He has. I am feeling far more confident than I ever imagined I could feel in this calling, especially only two weeks out! I have had lots of ideas come to me. I've survived my first food order and after following a prompting to go to the Temple yesterday, I even feel like I might survive giving my first ever Relief Society lesson next week!

It has been an amazing and very humbling experience to feel the Lord's hand in my life so strongly these last two weeks. I know that with His help even little old shy, mousy me can do this calling, and maybe even do it well. So, here we go...

To bee or not to bee...

2010-04-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

We bee! So, Bob is in the bishopric in our ward. Last spring our bishop got two beehives and he has been raving about bees in their meetings ever since. He is so enthusiastic about it that he talked Bob and one other guy in the bishopric into getting their own hives as well! I must confess that the more I read and learn about bees the more excited I got as well. Bees are amazing little creatures! Anyway, our adventure began last December when Bob started getting beehives and equipment for Christmas. He has spent the last several weeks putting the hives and all the frames together and putting them together in the garden all in preparation for the big day when our girls would arrive. Yesterday was the day!
We got up early yesterday morning and headed into Salt Lake to pick up two "packages" of Italian bees. Each package or box contains one queen and 2 1/2 pounds of worker bees. That translates to approximately 10,000 bees in each box!
We put them in the back of the suburban and listened to the buzzing all the way home. There were a couple of stray bees flying around by the time we got home but they seemed more interested in their sisters than in us which was good! Nonetheless, it was sort of a tense drive home!

When we got home Bob put on his bee suit and headed to the backyard. He pried out the can of sugar water that was feeding the bees and then removed the queen who was in her own little cage inside the box and put her down in the hive. Then he turned the box over and started shaking the bees out into the hive.

This was the point I decided to retreat inside and watch from the window! Dart wouldn't leave though. The bees just fascinated him. He is standing just beside Bob and tried to catch and eat the bees! It was fun until they had enough of him and started stinging him! He would run away and roll to get the bees off and then go back for more! He might not be the smartest dog in the world...

This is some video I took of the package of bees. I wanted to record the sound of all the bees buzzing - it's a one of a kind sound, that's for sure. Anyway, it has been fun and amazingly peaceful to watch the bees humming around their new hives and all the blossoms on the trees. They really do seem to be as gentle as the books say they are. If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. In spite of all the shaking and everything Bob had to do to install the bees in their hives he got stung only once and it was by a bee that got trapped in his pant leg and couldn't get out. Next time he is going to put rubber bands around his ankles!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-10T16:51:00.000-07:00

We had a very nice Easter weekend. The kids started off by coloring Easter eggs at the Moultries. I'm not sure what Grace thought of the whole thing but the rest of the kids had a lot of fun. They came home with four dozen brightly colored eggs that they want to treasure forever. I had to work pretty hard to convince Jeni that she couldn't keep her Easter eggs in her bedroom!Because of the funny weather we had we ended up postponing our neighborhood Easter egg hunt until the next Wednesday. We got together with four other families and went from yard to yard finding the eggs. The kids were all so excited. Here are Jeni, Nathan and Maddie with their "hunting helmets" on. Ready to go!

Maddie and Jeni were very good about helping Grace find her eggs.

Here is what Dart looks like on the neighbor's side of the fence! I think we have a hole to fill in...

I love my neighborhood! There are really great families with lots of cute kids to come outside and play in the cul-de-sac with my kids. With the good weather we have been having lately it's like a big party out in our circle every day as soon as the kids are all home from school. I love spring!

Here we are with some of our neighborhood friends.

Royalty and Warriors

2010-03-25T22:16:00.001-07:00

Nathan is talking about the joy of Individual Confidence & Uniqueness in Joy School this month. They are each making a book "All about me" and talking about how each of them are special and unique. So the mom who was teaching got each of them a crown because they are special. She had an extra one and gave it to Grace when we went to pick Nathan up. They have had so much fun playing with the crowns. Here is King Nathan and Queen Grace. Then they got bored with that and turned their crowns upside down to become warriors!

Nathan is off to conquer the land with his trusty bunny sidekick and a deadly pink ball...

Later Grace was playing peek-a-boo with me! I'm sure this is a yoga pose of some sort.

Kids are so funny! Nathan has me a little worried right now. A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue he said to me "Mom, what's taking this baby so long to get here?" It caught me by surprise because I am definitly not pregnant. But I guess he didn't like that answer too well because a few days ago, again out of the blue, he told me that we needed to name the other one Fred. What?!? I asked him what he meant and he told me that I "am going to go to the hospital and pop out two babies. The first one will be named Thomas and the second one will be named Fred!" Does this mean he wants a brother or two to play with? I guess we will wait and see what the future holds but, in the meantime he will have to make do with playing warriors with Gracie!

Gardening fun!

2010-03-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

We are trying something new in our garden this year. Bob got this book all about Square Foot Gardening (www.squarefootgardening.com) and so we have been busy building, filling, dividing and planting some garden boxes in the back yard. This is the first box we made. Two weekends ago we went out and planted peas - in the snow!

Last weekend we got our second box ready and planted strawberries, onions, garlic and celery. I think it's funny how different the weather was in just a week! We went from coats and hats to shorts and t-shirts (at least Bob did) and back again but then I guess that would be early spring in Utah!

I hope the garden works out as well as we are hoping. We are going to put in two more boxes and hopefully have lots of fun things to eat all summer long! I can't wait!

What is the shape of light?

2010-03-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Maddie's class was talking about flashlights in school and Maddie asked what the shape of the light would be if you changed the shape of the reflector plate behind the light bulb. Her teacher told her that would be an excellent question to explore in her science project so we went and bought some flashlight and took them apart. We tried to make reflector plates but it turns out it was a lot harder than we thought it would be. Then my brother John stopped by for a random visit one weekend and he got drafted into the project too. He helped Maddie build a flashlight in a box with a screen to project the light onto that worked so much better! Thanks John! Anyway, then we were able to make several different shaped reflector plates that worked! Guess what? The light does reflect the shape of the reflector plate! Anyway, Maddie had a lot of fun with her project and even won first prize for her grade at the school science fair. Good job Maddie (and Uncle John)!

Getting all dressed up!

2010-03-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

Grace has hit the stage where she wants to do everything herself. She is also developing strong opinions about what she wants to wear and since she is only 20 months old, this scares me to death!! What is she going to be like when she is 3 or worse yet, when she is 16?! Aaaggghh!!

Anyway, one morning after her bath she wanted to get herself dressed. She began by putting on one of Bob's dirty socks that she pulled out of the laundry basket. It went clear up to her hip! Then she put on his shoe and tried to walk around but the shoe kept falling off and the sock kept sliding down so while I was running downstairs for the camera she pulled those off and decided to try one of Nathan's pajama bottoms instead. One leg in, let's try for two!

Two legs in but something doesn't seem quite right. On the bright side, she is ready for the potato sack race!

Notice how she very cleverly ignored the blue clothes (at the bottom of the picture) that I picked out for her! She is at such a fun age right now. I love watching children starting to figure out the world around them.

A Box Full of Possibilities!

2010-01-13T20:46:00.001-08:00

Bob gave me some soap molds for Christmas which reminded me how much I enjoy making soap. I love the chemistry of it all, chemistry I can do right in my kitchen! As it turns out soap is made up of two main ingredients - oil, the very thing soap is so good at cleaning up, and a lye solution which is way too caustic by itself to be good for much. Put them together, add a nice fragrance and something for color and "Viola!" you have the best soap in the world.

Bob and I made a couple of batches of soap together over the Christmas break and we had so much fun together that we decided to use the Christmas money that Grandpa Bill gave us to buy some stuff that we wouldn't normally be able to get. We went online to Majestic Mountain Sage at http://www.thesage.com/ and had a lot of fun picking out a lot of different things. We picked up our order in Logan (where MMS is located) last weekend and it was so fun to bring the box home and go through it. What should we make first? Some Sandalwood shaving soap for Bob, some spearmint lip balm, a headache balm or I even want to try my hand at making my own lotion. So many choices!
In the end I wanted to try some soap made with ground up vanilla beans (for color, smell and texture) and scented with Tahitian Vanilla fragrance oil. So yesterday, while the older kids were at school I laid Grace down for a nap, put in Scooby Doo for Nathan and away we go!
First thing to do is gather everything I needed and prepare the soap molds. The last batch of soap we made did NOT want to come out of the mold! It took two days, two trips to the freezer and finally blunt force, Bob-style to get the soap out! I did not want a repeat of that so I brushed my molds with a little bit of mineral oil this time.
Then I measured out the different oils into a microwave safe bucket. An accurate scale is very important as is a good recipe! You can find some fun recipes on http://www.thesage.com/ as well as this cool feature they have called a lye calculator. You put in how much of each kind of oil you want and it tells you exactly how much lye and water you need to get the job done. You don't want too much lye (burning soap - bad!) or to little - soft, oily soap isn't much good either!
After the oils were ready I measured out the lye, the water and then proceeded to my front porch where I stood upwind to mix the two together. This is where the chemistry starts to get interesting. When you combine the lye and water not only does it temporarily produce fumes you don't want to breath but the whole thing heats up to somewhere around 160 degrees! After it has cooled down a bit I took it back inside. Now, I'm sure some of you are saying "Are you crazy? Lye is so caustic!" Well I was nervous at first too but I realized that I deal with plenty of caustic chemicals around the house anyway. If you treat a lye solution with the same respect you do your bottle of bleach you will be just fine!

After the oils are melted, the lye is ready and the two are about the same temperature it's time to get the party started!

I poured the lye solution into the oils and whipped out my favorite kitchen tool, my immersion blender! It doesn't take long to bring the oil and lye together with the blender, less than a minute with this batch. Before I added the fragrance and vanilla beans I tried pouring just a little bit of the white soap into the bottom of my molds. I wanted the roses and the dragonflies to be white.

This is what the soap looked like after adding the fragrance and ground vanilla beans. Yummy!

I poured the rest of the soap into the molds, covered them with cardboard and then wrapped them up with towels for a long winter night nap.

Wrapping the soap up like this helps the saponification (the oil and lye becoming soap) process. It's so hard not to peek during this stage...

This morning I unwrapped the soap molds and to my relief the mineral oil seemed to do the trick because the soap popped right out. My idea of putting a little bit of the plain white soap in first didn't work out quite like I wanted it too though. When I poured the rest of the soap in it forced the white part out. Oh well, it still looks interesting and I'm sure the soap will clean just as well as if the white part had stayed put! Now I just have to wait a few weeks for the soap to finish curing and then I can try it out. I can't wait! In the meantime, what should I make next???

Congratulations!

2009-12-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

My brother John and his girlfriend Bethany came over the day after Christmas for a visit. We were just finishing up a game of Life (which incidentaly, they had given us) and we were chit-chatting about this and that when out of the blue John asked Maddie and Jeni if they would like another aunt! He was so matter-of-fact about the whole think I don't think they quite knew what to think at first. But we are all excited to welcome Bethany to the family. Congratulations on your engagement you guys!!

Building houses

2009-12-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up my Mom would make the most amazing gingerbread houses. She made them with windows in them that you could peek through and see Santa and Mrs. Clause sitting next to their Christmas tree in front of a fireplace (with a yellow light behind a felt fire). There were icing stockings on the fireplace and a wreath on the mirror over it. They were incredible and always smelled so wonderful as you were looking inside! It was a tradition I continued for the first few years of our marriage but sometimes life is just too busy and so - you buy a kit at Costco instead! This kit had all the gingerbread pieces already baked and cut out and came with the frosting and candy as well. There were two gingerbread men that we decorated and put inside their house to live for the Christmas season.

Gracie even helped with the decorating. Taste a piece of candy, then put the remnants on the house, taste another piece of candy...

In many ways this kit is so much more fun for the kids. I let them decorate it however they want rather than stressing out about making it look perfect. I also don't care when they pick all the candy off long before Christmas even gets here!

Good job kids, it looks great!!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

2009-11-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

The kids woke us up bright and early the morning after Thanksgiving for our traditional "Set up the Christmas Tree" day. Bob and I were not very cooperative and tried to sleep in, but they persevered and were able to drag all the boxes of Christmas decorations up from the basement all by themselves. Unfortunately the Christmas tree itself was to heavy for them so they had to keep coming and poking at Bob until they finally got him out of bed to bring it up for them! After Bob brought up the tree they managed to put the whole thing together except for the top two rows of branches! I helped them with those and put on the lights and the angel at the top and they decorated the rest of the tree. I think having the kids do most of the work is definitely the way to go! Now if only they would be this eager when it's time to take everything back down...

Saturday we made our annual trek to a tree farm where you can find the tree you want and cut it down yourself. We picked out this tree for us and another tree for Bob's dad who decided that he wanted to spend Thanksgiving weekend in the hospital instead. Silly Grandpa!

Yay for big, strong husbands who can single-handedly cut down and haul away two trees all by himself while the rest of us followed behind and cheered him on. Someone had to take the picture, right!

It was tricky trying to close the car doors so we could go home!

Trick or Treat!

2009-11-05T20:00:00.000-08:00

We had some happy haunters at our house this year. Maddie was a lovely renaissance princess in red and gold. Jeni was a fifties girl although she had a hard time remembering what decade her costume was from. 50's or 80's? Whatever it was she was cute and loved having a pink costume.

Nathan was a dragon again and loved to growl at anyone he could.

Gracie was a leopard this year and it looks like she is trying to take a bite out of my leg in this picture. Watch out for her!

I saved my leg by finding some chocolate for my ferocious feline! That is the preferred food of this little cat!

Happy Halloween!

I love fall!

2009-10-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of October we went up the Blacksmith Fork Canyon to enjoy the beautiful fall leaves. We got there in the early evening and the kids had so much fun throwing the leaves around, throwing rocks in the nearby stream and waiting anxiously for Uncle John and Bethany to arrive so we could start a fire and have a picnic dinner.
Grace tried to copy her older sisters but her arms just aren't long enough!Nathan was ready to eat!I love the way the air smells when fall comes and the chill that comes in the evenings. I love the brilliant colors of fall, as if nature is cutting loose and putting on one last grand show before going to sleep for the winter under a blanket of white. I love fall!

Back to School!

2009-09-21T09:03:00.001-07:00

We are finally back to school and loving it! Nathan started first and headed off to his first day of Joy School on September 1st. He has two girls - Brooke and Ashley (the one with pigtails who, incidentally is the girl he is going to marry! They already have it arraigned!) and two boys - Easton and Everret in his class this year. I don't think he knows what to do with boys around! Anyway, he loves it and asks everyday if it's Joy School today! Maddie and Jeni started a week and a half later on the 10th. Maddie is in fourth grade this year and Jeni is in first grade. Jeni was very excited to go full day and to be able to take a lunch. I think that's a big event in a child's world.

It is nice to be back into a routine again but I had the strangest thing happen the other day. The three older kids were off at school and then Grace unexpectedly went down for an early nap. I had almost 45 minutes all to myself! I had no idea what to even do with it other than sit still and listen to the quiet!

Camping at Dahlgreen Valley

2009-09-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

We decided to celebrate the last weekend before school started by going camping in one of our favorite places - Dahlgreen Valley. It's on the north slope of the Uintas and it isn't an organized campground. You just find a spot you like and pull off the road into it and set up camp. There is a spring in the valley for water but other than that you are on your own. We got there in the dark on Thursday night. Friday morning the kids had fun playing in the trailer while we cleaned up breakfast. Grace discovered this little stroller and had so much fun pushing her baby back and forth and learning how to navigate around obstacles.

Nathan had his new Sco0by Doo bag that he made with Sandra and he used it to carry everything everywhere he went. We never left home without it!

While we were there we went on lots of different walks. The valley has a couple of small streams wandering through it and there were signs of beaver everywhere. We found one of their dams but we didn't ever see a beaver.

Later Maddie and Jeni put on a concert for us singing Scooby Dooby Doo (they are obsessed with it right now) or Hannah Montana songs. Nathan was suppose to play the guitar too but got distracted.

Grace loved having her new pink shoes on and being able to go outside and explore with the big kids.

This was a hike where we tried to bushwhack from one side of the valley to the other. We got most of the way across but then it got way to marshy, at least for whimpy I-don't-want-to-get-my-shoes-wet me. By this time Jeni had developed a blister on her foot (that happens when you don't wear socks with your shoes) and Maddie being the gallant big sister she is gave her a piggy back ride most of the way back to the trailer.

I want you to notice two things about this picture of Grace. First, see how her shirt and hair are dirty? That is because I guess she would get tired and decide she needed a little rest so she would lay down in the dirt for a few minutes and then get up and off she would go again. Second, see the rock she is happily gripping in her hand? She almost choked to death on the dumb thing a few minutes later! She put it in her mouth and wouldn't spit it out and being the paranoid parents that we are we put a finger in her mouth to try and scoop it out but instead ended up accidentally shoving it down her throat. It was the scariest few seconds ever until she was able to cough it back up and started bawling her head off. Sometimes that is the BEST sound in the world!

After that scary incident we decided we'd had enough of the great outdoors, packed up our stuff and headed for home thankful to listen to Grace crying because she was stuck in her car seat again!

Our visit to Washington

2009-08-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

My sister Keri and her kids came down from Washington for a visit at the beginning of August. The night they came in I fixed a big spagetti dinner to feed everyone. This is Grace and her cousing Laura (who is 17 days younger) sharing a plate of food. It starts out clean enough but then... ...things get a little bit messy. There was spagetti all over the girls, all over the table, chairs and floor. They had a wonderful time!

Keri stayed down for a week and then on August 8th we loaded our kids in the car and followed them all back up to Vancouver for a visit of our own. We enjoyed seeing their new house and letting all the kids play together. One day of our trip we went out to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. I love the huge tanks they have where you walk through a tube in the middle of the aquarium. You are surrounded by fish and they have these windows built into the floor so you can also see what is underneath you.

Grace didn't like walking on the windows in the floor so she keep trying to run away and find something else to entertain herself with.

Time for a break!

Another night Keri took our kids and Bob and I went on a dinner cruise on the Willamette River that runs through Portland. It was a really fun way to see the city and a fun date!

Later we went out to Pacific City beach. The weather was perfect and even though the water was cold we still had a great time.

Nathan loved playing in the water this year. Last year he would run away from the waves and hated it when they got him. Not this year!

This is a huge sand dune at one end of the beach. Bob and Jeff took the older kids all the way up while Keri and I entertained the babies down on the beach. Once Nathan finally made it to the top he decided that he needed to roll all the way back down.

Anyway, good times were had by all and we were very sad when the 15th rolled around it was time to say goodbye and make our way back home.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2009-08-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

Because of various circumstances Nathan ended up having three different birthday parties this year. First he had a combined birthday party with Scott on Monday night for Moultrie Family Home Evening. Nathan and Scott share the same birthday so Sherry brought a cake for both of them that had a "football glove" on it according to Nathan but it looked suspiciously like a baseball glove to the rest of us. Nana made him a Thomas blanket with his name embroidered on it that he just loves! It was a good day for him.

His actual birthday was on Wednesday and he really wanted a cake so he got a boring chocolate one but it was tasty! I also took him to the store where he picked out a new tricycle that is very noisy! He likes to push the button on his tricycle to rev the engine when Mike comes over with his motorcycle! I think the testosterone kicks in early!
Then we had the last party for him the next Monday after my parents got back from Washington. I asked Sarah to make the cake for him and she went all out! Check out this cool 3-D Thomas cake she did. I don't know how many hours it took but Nathan absolutely loved it. Thanks Sarah!

He also loved the hot wheels and the "Papa truck" he got that would launch the cars across the room.

Happy birthday buddy! I can't believe you are four years old!

Moultrie Family Fun Week

2009-07-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

It used to be that every summer we would take a "Boring Family Trip" with all of Bob's family. We would go someplace "boring" and just swim in the pool and enjoy each other's company. The last couple of years we have decided that was too expensive and decided to stay home and see the local sights together. So we started on Wednesday with boating at Pineview. Bob had to work so we were not able to participate. Thursday we all headed up to Logan and started the day with a trip to the temple grounds there. We had lunch together, played at the park and the little zoo they have and then split up to go swimming or to the cheese factory. Grace thought she was hot stuff in Nathan's goggles!We started Friday with a breakfast at Dee's house and then we all got out our Salt Lake City Connect Passes that we had purchased and started out on a whirlwind adventure. First we went to the Dinosaur museum (not the official name but I can never remember what it really is) and showed off our fancy hats.

Maddie and Jeni had a good time running away from the dinosaurs!

Next we stopped at the Aquarium in Sandy where the brave could touch a stingray. Stingray's do not feel like I think they should! They are soft, squishy and slimy -yuck!

More stuff you could touch if you wanted too.

After the aquarium we went to the Lion House for a quick lunch (also included in the pass) and then we went to Clark Planetarium where we walked on Mars...

and then on the moon! Nothing boring about this trip!

After the Planetarium we decided to end the day with a movie so after we ran Nathan and Grace to my parents house we watched Harry Potter 6.

Saturday morning we had early tickets to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was beautiful and not nearly so crowded as the Draper Temple Open House was. Afterwards we decided to head out to the Kennecott Copper Mine since we were right there. It was so interesting! The trucks they use are huge! You can kind of see it when you compare the trucks to the school bus (for moving employees around I suppose) in the picture below. Someone with sharper eyes than mine also saw a goat wandering around down there...

The kids got a kick out of seeing how big the tires on the haulers are. They are over 12 feet tall!

After Kennecott we split up for a while. The connect passes were still good so after lunch we took the kids to the Children's museum where they got to ride horses,

sort vegetables,

and use construction equipment - Jeni, where's your hard hat?!?

Then we went up to Snowbird and rode the tram to the top of the Mountain.

Somewhere in the background you can see Heber. It was a beautiful view but as you can tell the kids were not impressed!

So we rode the tram back down, put our whiny, worn out, cranky kids in the car and ended the day/fun week with a barbecue at Sherry's house. All in all it was a very fun week and we look forward to it again next year!

Souvenirs

2009-07-06T20:44:00.000-07:00

On our way out of Salmon on Saturday we stopped at King's to let the kids pick out a souvenir. They loved it! Maddie picked out this little baby doll that came with a bottle you could fill with water and squirt into the dolls mouth and, well, let's just say that I wish she was so excited to change Graces diaper!Jeni got a knitting kit that makes a purse and a belt.
Since I have never learned how to knit it was a learning experience for us both. And can I just say that instructions printed in China really leave a lot to be desired sometimes! They left out a whole step that made it impossible to learn just from the instructions! Thank goodness for YouTube and three little words: "learn to knit". There were some great videos on there that helped us on our way to a beautiful green purse. Jeni got a kick out of the little rhyme to remind you of the proper steps:

Under the fence,
Catch the sheep,
Back we go
and off we leap.

I was worried when she picked out the kit that she wouldn't have the fine motor skills or patience for it but she has done really well with it. I have to help her "catch the sheep" but I'm sure she'll figure out how to do that too. Maybe I'll have to get my own set of needles and we'll have a knitting party together!
Nathan found a "Papa truck" (my Dad drove a truck for Swift for a while, hence the name) for his souvenir. He has loaded it full of all sorts of stuff and made many deliveries with "Fred Moultrie Papa Truck"! I love how he is into naming his toys lately. As a side note he has a Raggedy Andy doll that he has named Billy. What a cute little guy.

Moultrie Family Reunion

2009-07-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

On Thursday we headed up to Salmon, ID for the Moultrie Family Reunion. Even though Maddie and I were not feeling well it was a fun trip. This was the view that greeted us when we walked into our motel room. It was right on the river and across from a picnic area. It was beautiful. I loved leaving the sliding door open so we could listen to the river going by.The kids had a great time. They quickly made friends with their cousins and each one of them had one that was just their age. One of their favorite things to do together was climbing up into the tree house.
Jeni got to ride a horse after the parade but for one reason or another she was the only one that did.
This is Caden, a cousin just Nathan's age.
Maddie and Kendall had a great time playing together and hunting for strawberries.
Grace just had fun toddling around. Look out world, here comes Grace!
Nathan had fun playing lawn darts with his new idol - Caleb. He was looking for Caleb the whole last day and tagging along with him whenever he could.
We ended our trip by going up the mountain and into a campground around this little lake. We had fun watching some of the older cousins wade out into the frigid water and catching a fish in a T-shirt!
It was raining a little bit. Jeni was in heaven because I let her play with the umbrella, but it did made it a little tough to gather and hold rocks to throw in the lake.
Getting ready to go. Goodbye everyone and goodbye Salmon! We had a great time.

Happy Birthday Grace!

2009-06-27T21:04:00.001-07:00

It was Grace's birthday yesterday and so we had a little party for her. She had no idea what to do with presents but had fun sitting on them and watching her older siblings open her presents for her!
Grace wasn't sure what to think when she first met her Raggedy Ann doll. Bob's sister Sandra makes one of these beautiful dolls for all her nieces and nephews on their 1st birthday! Maddie and Jeni have been waiting anxiously to see Graces for the last several days. Thank you Sandra!
This turtle that Sarah and Steve gave Grace was the favorite toy of the evening.
Cute cake - Dick's Market did a great job!
This looks pretty good!
It tastes even better! Grace got into the whole cake thing more than any of her siblings ever did!"Mmmmm! Good stuff Mom!
This is what she looked like after Uncle Steve "intervened"! She had cake everywhere - even down her diaper! At least this time he stuck around and helped me clean her up afterward - probably because he doesn't want to scare Sarah too badly!
I think you missed a spot! Happy birthday Gracie!

Big changes in 12 little months...

2009-06-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

Babies change and grow so quickly! Grace is 1 year old now so I wanted to post pictures of her first year of growth. This first picture is of her when she was 4 days old. Look how tiny she was!1 month old

2 months old

3 months old - cute smile!

4 months old - she can lift her head up now

5 months old - she is sitting up straighter

6 months old - she is interested in things around her

7 months old

8 months old

9 months old - this is getting boring Mom, I don't want to sit still!

10 months old

11 months old

1 year old!

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T21:59:00.001-07:00

Bob got a break this morning for Father's Day and didn't have any bishopric meetings until 10:00 so we started off Father's Day by making biscuits and gravy for breakfast. It's one of Bob's favorites and it was pretty darn tasty! After his meeting he came home to get us and to get gussied up for church. Last week in primary the kids each decorated a card stock tie for him with all sorts of feather, pom poms, glitz and glitter. Now I'm sure that some of the fathers were not too keen on the idea but there was no doubt in my mind what Bob would do. He proudly put on all three ties and away we went to church. He is such a cute Daddy, I couldn't imagine a better father for my children!After church we visited with some of the other great fathers in our lives. My Dad came over with my Mom and had dinner with us and a very nice visit. Then we went to visit my Grandpa Bill and then Bob's dad. It was kind of crazy with so many visits but it just means that we have lots of people that love us and who have done so much to shape us into the people we have become. What a blessing! Happy Father's Day - we love you all!

Car wash anyone?

2009-06-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

A few days ago the kids were outside playing with some friends when Maddie came inside to get me. She had a surprise for me and wanted me to close my eyes. She led me outside, down the porch stairs (where I peeked a little, I didn't want to break my neck after all!) and into the garage. Maddie and her friends Emily and Sarah had been very busy washing the car! They did a great job but where quick to reassure me that they didn't leave any dents in the car. What?! Silly Mom, of course they had to climb up on top of the car to get the top clean! And while they were up there they cleaned the top of the garage door for me too! What a bargin! I'm just glad that my windshield with the big crack running all the way across it held up.My little entrepreneurs were busy. They had already gone around the neighborhood and washed a couple of other cars and earned 35 cents each for their efforts.

Our first camping trip of the season

2009-06-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

We made it out on our first camping trip this year. We went to a place called Ironmine on the south slope of the Uintas and it was beautiful! The weather was perfect and the temperatures were great. It even looked like it was snowing but it was the cottonwoods further down the canyon. My parents came and spent the day with us on Friday and we had a really good time with them. Hopefully they can get their trailer up and running soon so next time they can stay longer. Steve and Sarah joined us later Friday night and Saturday. Here is a picture of our campsite. Notice how vacant it looks. Where do you suppose everybody was?Why, all the kids were down "helping" Steve and Sarah. Friday night they "helped" set up the tent and the sleeping bags. Saturday morning they were anxious to go "help" them wake up but I made them wait until a reasonable hour - hopefully! When I did let them go over they "helped" Sarah wake up by losing a caterpillar in her sleeping bag - sorry Sarah! They were very helpful all morning. Steve and Sarah are very good sports and we really enjoyed being with them.What else did we do on our trip? Well, Jeni and Nathan went on a bear hunt around and around Steve and Sarah's tent.
On Friday we went into the booming town of Hannah (they had one tiny store with a single gas pump out front) to get some gas and to let the kids pick out one treat or a small toy. The girls both picked out a makeup set and they put it to good use the rest of the trip.
You always have to look your best...
...because you never know who you might meet next!
Friday afternoon I went on a walk with Maddie, Jeni and Nathan around the campground. The kids got worried that we would get lost so they started pulling up dandelions and leaving a trail that we could follow back to camp. At first they would throw down handfuls ever step but then we decided that took way too much time so they would count out twenty paces and throw down one flower. It was a good way to practice counting and how not to get lost!
No time like the present to give Dart a haircut! He looked much better afterward and stayed much cleaner.
After breakfast on Saturday we headed off on a hike. It sounded like such a good idea but when we got there we found that the trail was very wet and swampy. We had to step carefully but it was still fun and a pretty hike.
Nathan found a large rock that he diligently carried on our hike. Why would he carry a rock you ask?
So that he would be prepared when we got to the river!
We finished up our trip by roasting hot dogs for lunch and eating marshmallows and dirt. Or was it dirt and marshmallows? I'm not sure but whatever it was, it was yummy!
We love camping together!

Sticker wars

2009-06-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

Bob brought home a bunch of stickers from work and it turned into a sticker war! We stuck stickers all over each others faces but I didn't think about pictures until Jeni was the only one with stickers still on her face. She looked cute and was having so much fun until it was time to take them off. They really stuck to her skin and hurt to pull off, especially around the eyes. Later that day I looked at her and saw little red squares all around her eyes where the stickers had been. I think she was allergic to the adhesive, poor girl! I think there will be no more sticker wars for us!

We should live on a farm!

2009-06-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

Bob ordered an incubator a few weeks ago and started a batch of 8 eggs. We had the incubator sitting on our counter and it was pretty exciting watching the eggs turning back and forth for four weeks. Then hatching day came and things did get interesting. I've decided that there is no easy, clean way to be born! Those little ducks worked and worked to hatch. The first duck that started hatching died when it had a hole about the size of a dime in the shell. It was so sad!
Two more made it out in the next 24 hours and we thought that was all we were going to get, then we noticed another egg that was busy rocking in the incubator. The next day that duck finished hatching. Three eggs out of eight. Hmmm, not very good odds but oh well, they are sure cute!

Memorial Day

2009-05-26T21:25:00.001-07:00

Memorial Day was a very busy day. We started out with our traditional breakfast of ziplock omelets at Aunt Lauralyn's house. It was just as tasty as always and lots of fun to visit and play with cousins that we only see twice a year. I think it's funny how the kids can pick up right were they left off playing last time and always have a good time together. Maddie, Jeni and cousin Madie really enjoyed having Bob swing them in the hammock.
The very low hanging hammock! Looks like fun to me!
Later on we went over to the Bountiful Cemetery with Steve and Sarah to visit Grandma Laura's grave. We had a few flowers and some pictures the girls had drawn that we left.I loved this picture that Jeni drew for Grandma. The picture is of Grandma Laura holding Jeni when she was 6 months old. It has been hanging on our fridge for a long time so Jeni took it down and drew a picture of it to leave at the grave site.Then we went over to Arlene's grave where the girls left more flowers and the pictures they had drawn for Grandma Moultrie. We admired the newly placed granite slab that had been put over the plots (while we wondered how they will put a far-off-in-the-future casket, or four, underneath it?) and we admired the beautiful temporary plaque that Dave made. The girls carefully spread flower petals that had fallen from the snowballs that Dee left all over the granite and then the kids played chase for a while. I wondered if that was appropriate but yet I'm sure if Arlene could see the kids she would want to see them running and playing instead of moping and crying. All though, after a while I did gathered the kids up and we made our way back to the car and let Bob have a few minutes alone with his mom.
Sometimes I enjoy walking around a cemetery. It's fun to see how old some of the graves are and to wonder about the lives of those buried there. Most of them where men and women who lived and loved, worked and played, celebrated and struggled and sometimes made the ulitmate sacrifice for our freedoms. What were they like? What is the history hiding underneath those headstones? It's always heart wrenching to see the graves of people who died way too young, especially babies, but it's tempered a little bit when you see how long most of the people buried there lived. Cemeteries can be interesting places to go.

After we finished at the cemetery we went swimming at the rec. center with Steve and Sarah for a while and then we finished off the day with a nice barbecue over at the Moultrie's. All in all it was a very nice day.

The Moultrie Family Flag

2009-05-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

Nathan has been talking about the "Joy of Family Security, Identity and Pride" in Joy School these last couple of weeks. As part of the unit it suggests that each family create a "family flag" so that is what we did for Family Home Evening tonight. First we talked about why families are important and then we talked about what to put on our flag as we were eating dinner. We took turns talking about things that are important to our family as well as things we like to do together. After dinner we found pictures of everything and then the kids got busy cutting, taping and writing on our flag. They did most of the work on the flag and when they were done they carried it around while they were singing "It's a Grand Old Flag"!

So without further ado, I would like to present to you the Moultrie Family Flag!!
We started with our family picture centered in two rings that symbolize Bob and I as well as our unending love for each other and the eternal nature of our family. Then we found a picture of Christ because we want to have a Christ-centered home as well as a picture of the Bountiful Temple where Bob and I were married. Then we found a picture of Dart because he's part of the family too, a piggy bank because we are trying "to live life on a budget" as Maddie calls it. There's a trailer because we love to go camping together, pictures of our home full of love - most of the time anyway ;-)! There's a robot because of the Robot Game that the kids love to play with Bob, Friday night sleepover's in Mom & Dad's room, going out for ice cream and going to church together. Nathan wanted the flag to be red so that was his contribution. I'm glad we had some red paper since we did not put milk or bananas on it like he also wanted us to do...

I've been doing Joy School for three years now but this is the first time we've done this activity and I'm really glad we did. It made us stop and think about our family and brought a sense of unity and love to our home. Next week I think we will do another Joy School activity where we make a book with 12 pages and then we go through and list or draw our family traditions that we do each month. I love Joy School!

The Legend of the Rubies of Rosevall

2009-05-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

Jeni had her ballet recital last Saturday and she did a great job. The story was cute, it was about a prince (they have one male dancer and he is very good) who is about to be wed but the castle is in disarray because a) there has been a drought that has dried up the streams, flowers, gardens and driven away all the birds, etc. and b) the ruby necklace that his deceased parents left for his betrothed has been stolen! Gasp!! Oh no!! Various pixies and sprites come to the rescue bringing rain showers that restore the ponds, flowers and gardens as well as summoning back all the animals. They also track down the thief in the end - those naughty blue jays... Anyway, it was a really cute show and Jeni did a great job as a goldfish.The kids have all been practicing for several months now
But of course the best part is dressing up in pretty costumes, wearing makeup and the treat they get at the very end after the show is over!
Way to go Jeni, you did a wonderful job!

More Tricycle Rides

2009-05-07T16:17:00.000-07:00

So the popular thing to do lately is give Grace a ride on various tricycles. Here are a few more pictures.Maddie had to work pretty hard with her long legs.
The tigger-plane is fun too!
Several people have mentioned seeing pictures of Maddie and Jeni similar to the ones of Nathan and Grace on the tricycle. So here are a couple of pages from a scrapbook of Maddie giving Jeni a ride on the very same tricycle almost 6 years ago.

It's only been 11 years...

2009-05-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

...that we have lived here in our home. I've always meant to hang up pictures in the living room and I finally did it today. Yay!! Maybe next I'll finally get around to painting like I've always wanted too - or maybe that will be in another 11 years, I mean why rush things?!We went and had family pictures taken in all our pretty, matching pink wedding clothes and here they are! They turned out really nice.

Who'd have thought?

2009-04-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I always loved getting new things. Toys and treats were the best, clothes were pretty good - you get the idea. Sometimes it amazes me what I get excited about as an adult. We got our tax return and what did we use it for? We went out and bought a new vacuum and a carpet cleaner and Bob and I have both been giddy with excitement all weekend! (Maddie too)

We have been using a carpet cleaning service for the last several years but recently we came to the conclusion that instead of cleaning our carpet they were simply spreading the accumulating dirt around in a nice even color so you didn't really realize it was still dirty. We busted out the new carpet cleaner on Saturday and attacked the dining room and if the disgustingly dirty water we kept dumping out was any indication we were right about the service we were getting.

The best part of having a new vacuum is all of a sudden everyone is volunteering to vacuum for me! Maddie has decided that since she is now 9 she needs a new chore and that chore will be vacuuming! Jeni and Nathan have also taken turns pushing it around today. I should let them try it when it's turned on and see what they think. Hmmm...I wonder how long this will last? Hopefully for a long time!

Tricycle rides!

2009-04-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Last week Nathan really wanted to ride his "pedal bike" but it was too cold and rainy to go out so I finally let him bring it inside. As soon as Grace saw it she got really excited. I set her on the step behind Nathan and she was in heaven! She hung on tight to Nathan, kicked her feet and away they, went riding in circles around the family room.
Gracie sure loves her big brother, and he sure loves his Goo-goo, although he did tell me recently that I need to go back to the hospital and get a boy baby this time!
Some things are worth not worrying about the carpet getting dirty...

Happy Easter

2009-04-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

We started out our Easter celebrations with an Easter egg hunt put on by Sandra at the Moultries. They usually hide over 200 eggs filled with chocolate and money around their backyard! The kids love it!After the hunt is over - usually in about 3 minutes, everyone sits down to open the eggs. That usually takes about 30 minutes because the eggs are taped closed so securely.
Keri and her family were in town for the wedding so we were able to bring Scott, Amy and Andrew along for the fun. Thanks Sandra!
Here is a picture of Dee with most of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Grace had an egg for each hand and was just as happy as could be.After the Easter egg hunt we went inside to color hard boiled eggs. I'm not exactly sure who boiled them all but there were 25 dozen eggs waiting for the kids. Everyone who was interested in coloring eggs got their own box to color. We came home with three dozen eggs and amazingly enough, we've eaten them all! I'm not sure what Keri did with her three dozen eggs since they were leaving to go back to Washington the next day. Good luck with that one Keri!
This is my great-niece Gabriella (yikes, that makes me feel old!) who came in with her mother Jamie from New York for the funeral. She had so much fun trying to color all her eggs at once that I couldn't resist including her picture here. She dyed her eggs in record time and they actually turned out amazingly pretty. Good job Bree!
The kids enjoyed looking for eggs Sunday morning before we headed off to church. All in all, it was a pretty good Easter.

The Wedding

2009-04-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

As soon as we finished up with the funeral we moved right on to my brothers wedding. I'm very glad that we were able to finish up a super crazy week with such a happy event.Maddie and Nathan did great as a flower girl and a ring bearer.Jeni and Sarah's nephew Ross also did a great job. Jeni took her job very seriously as you can tell by the look on her face.Nathan and Ross did a great job doing their ring bearer duties. No rings fell off their pillows and rolled away into the audience causing a mad scramble as they went!After the ceremony was over Sarah was followed faithfully by her three "dress carriers" - Maddie, Jeni and their cousin Amy were in heaven to look so pretty and carry such a pretty dress!
Here is a picture of my whole family together. This is one of my favorite pictures of Steve and Sarah together.
Nathan got a little bored during the receiving line and decided to drag Goo-goo (his nickname for Grace) around and show her the sights.Bob enjoyed the reception too!
The girls loved the dancing during the reception. There was plenty of slow music to enjoy as well as the YMCA dance, a linedance and the "Money Dance" where the guests had to pay Sarah's mom to dance with Steve or Sarah. I believe they ended up with something like $85 to take on their honeymoon with them.
After the reception ended the happy couple changed (FYI: Sarah purchased Steve's shirt and wanted him to wear it!) and then we sent them dodging through confetti we fired out of some crackers off to their honeymoon - a two week cruise through the Panama Canal. Congratulations guys!

The Funeral

2009-04-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Most of the week after Arlene's death was spent over at the Moultrie's. I never quite realized how much goes into a funeral but everything got organized, the funeral was planned, the casket picked out and many flowers delivered. We spent most of our time there visiting and reminiscing. I think that Bob and all his siblings and Dad found a lot of comfort in being together. Wednesday was the viewing and it really got to poor Maddie. She broke down and couldn't stop crying. Thankfully my parents took the kids with them when they left the viewing and were able to distract her and help her come around and think of something else.

Thursday was the funeral. Something set Jeni off that day and she had a really hard time settling back down. She finally calmed down about the time the funeral was starting. It was a really nice service. Bob and each of his siblings spoke and they all did a really good job. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren all sang "Give Said the Little Stream" which was one of the first songs that Arlene taught her own children. They did a really good job and it was nice to hear their sweet voices raised together. Bob was one of the pall bearers and Nathan followed along behind him holding on to the very end of the casket as an honorary pall bearer.

The hardest parts of the funeral for me were the closing of the casket (it always seems so final to me) and leaving the casket at the cemetery and driving away. But as we were leaving I had the distinct feeling that while we were leaving her body alone, she was not there. I don't know if she was at the family lunch enjoying watching her loved ones visiting together or if she is somewhere else, celebrating her reunion with loved ones who have passed on before. But I know that she is somewhere and that we can all be with her again. I am so thankful to know that we existed before life on this earth and that we will go on when this life ends and that we can be together forever. I'm especially grateful for Jesus Christ and all he did to make this possible. I know that He lives and that He did what He said he would do.

Arlene Margaret Carlson Moultrie

2009-04-07T20:51:00.000-07:00


Arlene Moultrie 1921 ~ 2009 BOUNTIFUL-Arlene Margaret Carlson Moultrie passed away quietly at home the morning of April 4, 2009. She was born June 12, 1921 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Hilmer and Margaret (Dahn) Carlson. She had four sisters and three brothers, all of whom are deceased. After World War II she served a mission in the Southern States where she met her future husband, Dee Moultrie. They were married May 27, 1949 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. She served honorably and faithfully in multiple callings for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is survived by her husband Dee; children, Susan Palmer (Garen), Sandra Moultrie, David Moultrie (Becky), Sherry Johnson (Scott), Bob Moultrie (Carolyn), Liz Banner (David), Lesli Harvey (Jared), and Lisa Rushton (Jason); 15 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at 12:00 noon on Thursday, April 9, 2009 at the Bountiful 14th Ward Chapel, 1500 South 600 East. Friends and family may call Wednesday evening from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Russon Brothers Bountiful Mortuary, 295 North Main and Thursday morning 10:45-11:45 a.m. at the church prior to services. Interment- Bountiful City Cemetery. Online guestbook at www.russonmortuary.com

A very sad weekend

2009-04-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

Usually I absolutely love conference weekend. I love the changing weather, the chance to gather with family and especially the opportunity to listen to the church leaders talk and the peace and insight that brings. This weekend turned out much differently than I had anticipated.

We got a call Saturday morning about 9:00 from Bob's sister Sandra. She was so distraught and then gone that Bob had to call her back and find out what she had said. It was this "I just called an ambulance for Mom, you need to come right now." He was trying to hurry and get dressed when his sister-in-law called back to say that Bob's mom Arlene had died. Bob left as quickly as he could and left me and the kids home since we didn't quite know what to expect. He was able to get there and have a few minutes with his mother before the paramedics took her body away. He later told me that as he was sitting there, crying over her body he felt like he heard her say "Oh don't be silly!" which is something I can totally picture her saying to him. It made him laugh and helped him feel not quite so sad.

Anyway, after she was gone he called us and we went over and spent the rest of the day there. It was a very emotional, sad-but-strangely-happy day. Most of the time it was just the imediate family and it was neat to sit together and share that time. When it got too sad somebody would always pipe up with "Remember when..." and soon everyone would be laughing together and one story would lead to another and another. Listening to all the stories I have realized that even when I met Arlene 13 years or so ago, she had slowed down a lot (she would have been 88 this June) and that she has really lived a full and vibrant life. Bob is having a hard time with it, especially when we slow down enough to stop and think about it. Maddie and Jeni also go in spells where they cry and are really sad, then it passes and they are off and running with the other kids. Nathan doesn't understand what has happened but he can feel the emotion around him. He will come and climb up on my lap and be sad for a few minutes and after I hug and kiss him for a few minutes he is fine and off he goes too, chasing after his sisters. Grace has been amazing these last two days. She has been teething and going through a stranger-anxiety phase lately but she has been so cute, charming and unusually social. She crawls around and smiles at everybody and lets people pick her up without fussing. I can't help but think that Heavenly Father might be working though her a little bit because you can't look at a cute, happy, smiling baby and not feel just a little bit better.

What is it about shoes?

2009-03-31T09:12:00.000-07:00

I seriously think that girls are born with a gene that predisposes them to love shoes! We went shoe shopping last night for the wedding next week and the girls had a ball. We quickly picked out the wedding shoes and then Maddie and Jeni proceeded to try on every pair of shoes they could get their hands on, especially the high heels! They pranced, they danced, they jumped and ran and twirled. They strutted and then practiced their "wedding walk" - sorry Sarah and Steve, I'll try to convince them to just walk normally in the next few days... They had so much fun! Even Grace got into it. I finally put her on the floor so she wouldn't dump herself on her head out of the cart (child safety belts do not work with her!) and she loved crawling over and looking in all the different boxes and touching the shoes. Nathan on the other hand was content to try on one pair of shoes and then he just chased after his sisters.In the end we were successful. We came away with three matching sets of shoes for the girls and some handsome black shoes for Nathan. I could have had a matching set as well (I can wear a size 4 in the girls section since I have freakishly small feet) but opted for a nice new pair of heels instead. We're going to look great next week!

A wonderful day!

2009-03-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday and it turned out to be a great day! The kids were really cute and wanted to give me some presents so Nathan gave me one of his Thomas trains. Jeni gave me one dollar and 5 pennies, but then she told me it was to help buy treats for the kids to eat on the trip to Salmon, ID coming up on Saturday - very thoughtful! Then Bob and the kids got me a box of Cavanaugh's chocolate. Steve and Sarah gave me a Scentsy warmer and several different fragrances to go with it (Love it!!) and Bob's family gave me a book of church art as well as some money.Bob surprised me by taking the day off and he gave me my favorite present of all - a clean kitchen! Grace has been sick and very clingy the last few days and Maddie had a really intensive project at school so the dishes had stacked up. He did them all for me then picked up clutter and vacuumed for me all while he made me sit down and relax! I felt so guilty, yet luxuriant! It was wonderful - thank you Honey, you're the best!!

Later that afternoon we went to Costco because we needed some salt for the water softener. Well, $350 later we left with two bags of salt, a Wii console and a Wii Fit to go with it. We've been trying to get a hold of a Wii for months now but nobody has had them for a while. We spent the rest of the day playing on the Wii and trying to figure out whose turn was next! It was a lot of fun.

Jeni's big news!

2009-03-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

Jeni was very excited to loose her very first tooth last Monday evening! It has been very loose for quite some time now but she finally brushed it out when she was brushing her teeth!She put her tooth under the pillow and the Tooth Fairy brought her a golden dollar! What a lucky girl!

Why buy expensive toys?

2009-03-25T12:39:00.001-07:00

So last week when I went grocery shopping I bought a case of applesauce. Jeni labeled them for me and did a great job. Not only does every can have the date but also hearts and polka dots and one special can even has crowns! It kept her entertained for quite a while!When she was done I didn't get around to taking them downstairs to put them away for a few days. First Nathan started stacking them up every which way. Grace loved to crawl over and knock them down for him. It kept them very entertained for a long time too!
Then Jeni and Maddie would come home from school and they started making towers and buildings as well! A simple box full of cans kept all four of them entertained for several days!
So maybe I should throw out the Barbie dolls and Thomas the Trains and just give the kids cans to play with! Besides, when they get bored with the cans, we can open them up and have something good to eat!

Got green?

2009-03-18T11:30:00.001-07:00

Why do kids love St. Patrick's Day so much? I don't remember it being such a big deal when I was a kid but then maybe I'm just getting old. Oh well.

The girls had to get creative because their uniforms don't have any green in them so they colored their lips green and drew green freckles on their cheeks.They also gave Nathan a green handlebar mustache and freckles so he would be ready for the day. No pinches at our house!
Then we had breakfast of green eggs and ham. Yum!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Tuxedo

2009-03-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

Steve and Sarah came by with a tuxedo they bought Nathan for their upcoming wedding next month. Nathan is going to be one of the ring bearers with Sarah's nephew Ross. We took Nathan in the other room to get him dressed in his "mosquito" (he couldn't remember tuxedo!) where he was happy to get gussied up.
The G.Q. look, what a cutie!
But then when we went into the other room to show everyone else he got some serious stage fright and wouldn't smile for anything.Maddie trying to assist with the smiling.
He still looks very handsome. Hopefully he will warm up to the whole idea before the wedding comes!

Ride 'em Cowgirl!

2009-03-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

Maddie helped Grace go riding on her horse named Appaloosa! Yee-haw!Grace was in the kitchen with me the other night and crawled over to the pantry where she found herself a snack - a block of white dipping chocolate.
She gnawed on it for quite a while with her two little teeth and was quite upset when the dog finally got it away from her. She's definitely a Moultrie - she loves her chocolate!

A busy month for Grace

2009-02-16T21:44:00.000-08:00

This has been a very busy month for Grace since she turned 7 months old on Jan. 26th. She has cut her first two teeth, learned how to commando crawl, figured out how to sit up on her own and not tip over. This last week she has learned how to pull her knees up under her and crawl as well as how to pull herself up onto her feet! Sometimes she can even get back down, but not always. She also fell down the stairs for the first time, hence the chair now blocking them. At least it was the small flight of stairs...poor girl.
This is a picture of Grace sitting in a "safe place". Maddie was watching Grace for me while I was fixing dinner and she decided this was a good place for her. Me being the good mother that I am ran for the camera instead of scooping up Grace!Here is a video of Grace crawling. She looks way too little to me to be crawling.

Fishing and Peas

2009-02-16T21:25:00.000-08:00

In Joy School we just finished up a unit on Order and Goal Striving. Part of the lessons involved the kids setting a goal and then working on reaching the goal during class for the next few days. One of the girls decided to learn to tie her shoe, a couple worked on their letters and one practiced a new piece on the piano. Nathan decided his goal was fishing! I'm not sure where he got that from but fortunately one of the other Mom's suggested a magnetic fishing game she has. (Thanks Maegan!) Nathan loved it! He would work and work, catching the fish one at a time and then tucking them back into the plastic bag they came in. He got pretty good at it!
Maddie had a project for school as well. She had to make a diorama about a fairy tale she read in school. She decided to do one about "The Princess and the Pea". She found the box, the dolls and the bed and she drew the queen's footprints and the door. We couldn't figure out how to make the mattresses so I called my Mom who is very creative and she had a great suggestion as well as the supplies we needed to finish the project. Mom's are the best! Maddie's project turned out really cute and she got a good grade on it.

A sneak peek

2009-02-08T20:43:00.000-08:00

Steve and Sarah came over the other day with the dresses that the girls are going to be wearing for the wedding. Grace woke up from her nap just in time to model hers.

I don't know if Grace knew that she was pretty or if she just liked being the center of attention but she was totally hamming it up! Look at that grin!Looking good Steve! He tried on Grace's hat but his smile just isn't quite as cute - too many teeth maybe!

Family pictures - sort of!

2009-02-03T16:36:00.001-08:00

Here are our family pictures that in the end turned out to be pictures of the kids. They are probably much cuter that way anyway!

Madison - 8 1/2 years old

Jenika - 6 years old

Nathan 3 years old

Grace - 6 months old

Catching snowflakes

2009-01-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

Sunday after we got out of church it was snowing these huge flakes. We stood in the parking lot for a while catching them on our tongues. It was so much fun. You could look straight up and watch it snowing but then you could dodge the flakes so they didn't hit you. When we got home I grabbed the camera and caught some cute pictures.

This picture of Nathan is my favorite!

Opps, I forgot...

2009-01-24T19:32:00.000-08:00

Last night when we were about half way through the Temple tour Maddie leaned over and whispered to me "Look Mom, there's another one!" I asked her what she meant and she pointed to one of the guides who had a big name tag hanging around her neck and said "There's another girl named Usher! Why are all the people who work here named Usher?"

I love to see the Temple!

2009-01-24T10:36:00.000-08:00

Last night we had tickets to go to the Draper Temple Open House. Maddie and Jeni were especially excited to go inside of the Temple since they've never been in one. We left our house about 5:15 and went to the church the ticket directed us too. We went inside and they directed us to the gymnasium to sit and wait. They were working their way through two rows of chairs at a time. That's when we realized that it was going to be a lengthy process and we were very unprepared to entertain four getting-hungry children for an undetermined length of time!

But as parents you learn to get creative and roll with the punches so we played plenty of "Rock, Paper, Scissors", "I Spy" and lots of poking games as well as entertaining trips to the restrooms and drinking fountains. The promise of refreshments at the end of the tour also kept us going!

Finally it was our turn. They took us into another room where we watched a short video about temples and about the Draper area. Then we got to go out and get on the bus that took us up to the Temple. They had assigned a color to each of the chapels that were staging areas and they told us to make sure and remember blue so that we could find our cars when we were done. Well Nathan heard blue and after we got on the bus in the foggy darkness he was sure we were riding on Thomas the Train. So we got to ride on "Thomas" up to the Temple.

The Temple was very crowded but well organized. We started by seeing the baptistery and Maddie and Jeni are both very excited to turn 12 so they can start doing baptisms for the dead. Everything was so beautiful and well done. Even in the hallways between rooms were interesting, beautiful pictures to look at while we waited. Next they took us through the marriage waiting room and dressing rooms and then into the ordinance rooms that had beautiful murals on the walls. The Celestial Room (me and Maddie's favorite room) was absolutely beautiful and so was the sealing room where we ended the tour. After we were done we were directed into a church building on the Temple grounds where they had cookies and water and more information as well as plenty of missionaries on hand to answer any questions we had. It was a really neat tour and I enjoyed talking to Maddie (Bob was busy with Jeni and Nate) about it as we went through.

When we finally got back to our car it was 8:45! We were all starving so we decided to go to "Chuck-A-Grandma" (Nathan's name for Chuck-A-Rama) that was just by the freeway exit. We got there just as they were closing and wouldn't let us in so we ended up going to the "Star Restaurant" (Carl's Jr.) instead. It was after 10:00 when we finally got home but it was lots of fun and a really neat experience for all of us. In fact Nathan has been asking this morning if we can go and ride Thomas to the Temple again today!

Dart's knee: Round 2

2009-01-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

So Dart had only been home from his surgery a few days when a small child (who shall remain nameless) fell on his leg and as it turns out, broke one of the sutured ligaments. Bummer! So we had to take Dart back in for another surgery on Wednesday. Fortunately there was no damage to the bone or other anchors, the suture just came loose so the doctor put in a stronger suture and stitched Dart back up. We brought him home that night with a new incision he isn't supposed to lick and another round of medication. In spite of the second surgery Dart is acting much better and slowly starting to use the leg and knee a little bit. It was funny watching him try to scratch his nose there for a while!

The great thing about animal medicine is it is much, much cheaper than it's human equivalent! The second surgery including anesthesia, IV fluids and the take home meds only added $105 to our original bill (which admittedly was quite a bit more than $105 but no where near what a human surgery with all the complicated insurance to wade through would be!) Dart did learn a lesson though. Now he doesn't follow the kids around the house and plop down in the middle of where they are playing!

Sledding fun!

2009-01-13T20:47:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we went with some friends sledding. I wasn't too excited to go at first but when we got there it turned out to be lots of fun. The kids had a ball!
With a push from Daddy, Jeni went flying by her friend Keizzya.

Maddie loved going down the long hills with lots of bumps!

Nathan would spin in circles as he slid down the hill on this saucer.

Bob and Jeni spun around and went down backwards when they went together. I guess this sled wanted to go heavy end first!

I put this cute hat on Grace to keep her head and ears warm, tucked her into the sling and zipped my coat around both of us. We even went sledding with Maddie on the big green sled a couple of times. It was a really fun day!

Gimpy McHop-a-long comes home

2009-01-13T20:30:00.000-08:00

Dart has been home for a week now and is looking much better. He came home last Tuesday, the day after his surgery with a very swollen leg that was shaved from hip to toes and a three inch incision stapled shut over his knee. The doctor said that Dart had a complete tear of the ACL, PCL and medial collateral ligaments and damage to the medial meniscus which I believe is a pad of tissue between the bones in the knee. (I hope those terms are right, I had to listen to the voice message again and again to try and get them!) Anyway, the doctor said that pretty much anything that could go wrong in his knee did go wrong.Poor Jeni was really freaked out by Dart that first night. She didn't want him anywhere near her and if she had to go past him she would cover her eyes and run. The funny thing was, it wasn't the incision or the swelling/bruising that bothered her. It was all the hair shaved off! Kids are funny sometimes!

We were instructed to keep him from licking the wound and to avoid excessive stair use for the next 8 weeks! Ha, like that is going to happen in our house. If you are not familiar with the layout of my house it is 5 stairs from the garage to the family room, 4 stairs from the family room to the kitchen and living room. Then it's 10 stairs to most of the bedrooms and the closest bathroom and finally 4 more stairs to my bedroom (where he sleeps at night) and the other bathroom. Poor dog! The first night we had him home I finally put him on a leash and put it around a chair to keep him from trying to hop up the stairs on three legs. Anyway, he is doing much better now and starting the use that leg a little bit. Unfortunatly he doesn't seem to have learned anything because he has already tried to sneak out the front door at least twice in the last week!

Dart and family pictures

2009-01-03T18:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning we had an appointment at Target to have our family pictures taken. About an hour before we were suppose to be there Bob discovered that Dart, our dog was gone. He had put Dart out back without realizing that someone had left the gate open. Dart being the bird dog that he is loves to run and explore and does so every chance he gets.

This is not the first time this has happened and we usually just have to wait until someone finds him and gives us a call. We weren't sure what we were going to do this time though because we needed to leave for our pictures. Bob went out to look for Dart but came back empty-handed. We were all up in our bathroom trying to get all the kids bathed, dressed and combed when Dart came running through the bathroom and into our closet to find a pile of dirty clothes to lay down on. When Bob came back from looking for him the garage door must not have closed tightly because of the wind so Dart was able to nose it open and come in. We were all very relieved to see him but when we looked at him closer we could see that something was wrong. He was very dirty and he didn't move right. He tried to change positions but his back end just sort of flopped. I was afraid that he had hurt his back. He finally got himself to his feet and I was glad to see that his back seemed to be okay after all but his left hind leg just hung there. He hopped along on three feet and when Bob tried to pick him up he started whining like he was really hurting. We decided that Bob would take Dart to the vet while I took the kids for pictures. When the vet finally had a chance to look at Dart he said that Dart most likely got hit by a car and that all the ligaments in his leg are messed up. If Dart is ever going to be able to use his leg again he will need arthroscopic surgery on it. Who knew they did that on a dog!! So anyway, Dart is scheduled for the surgery on Monday. I hope it all goes well and that the surgery can restore most of the function in his leg. I didn't realize how much we would all miss having him around.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it's because of the passing of the old year and watching the new year come in but I can't help but think about how quickly time passes. Last night we started out our New Year Eve party by going to see Bob's nephew Cody get set apart for his mission. He flew to England this morning where he will go to the MTC for three weeks and then report to the Leeds England mission. It is amazing when I stop to think that Cody was only 6 or 7 when I first met him. He has sure grown up since then. I couldn't help but look at Nathan and think it won't be very long before it's his turn to go on a mission and that I really only have him for a few short years. Oh well, I guess that's how life goes.

After the setting apart, we went home and Steve and Sarah came over to party with us. They brought their Wii and the new Wii Fit they got for Christmas.

We had a lot of fun playing with it. I think that's the kind of exercise I could get into. Too bad it's so hard to get hold of a Wii.
Nathan really enjoyed Slalom skiing (apparently it works better if you keep your hands in your pocket!), Jeni liked bowling and Maddie had fun playing tennis.

We laughed as I did a very poor impression of a tree and Bob fell off the tightrope two feet from the end.

Steve impressed us by skillfully dropping balls through the holes in a marble game and Sarah wowed us by getting great distance on the ski jumping.

Grace just had fun watching the rest of us. Who knew you could do so many things in your own family room! After a while we left the kids to play on the Wii and the adults got to play a few rounds of a domino game called Mexican Train. We were having so much fun that we almost forgot to usher in the new year but we remembered just in time! Happy 2009!

Christmas fun

2008-12-28T21:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas is so much fun with small children. Here are some of my favorite pictures.
Who wants presents when you can eat the Christmas tree?

Putting out the food for the reindeer.

Jeni got this sleeping bag from one of her cousins on Christmas Eve and has slept in it ever since. Thanks Hayden!

Should we go downstairs to see if Santa came?

First we have to wake up the uncles. Tackle time!!!

Opening presents at last! Nathan really got into presents this year. He keeps asking for more and wondering when Santa is going to come again.

Yay!! Look at all that paper to crumple up and eat (and choke on!)

Fun new Christmas pajamas.

When everything is all said and done it's lots of fun to play with new toys. The girls have especially enjoyed their new dollhouse and furniture and Nathan loves his trains.

Getting ready for Christmas

2008-12-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

It's been very busy getting ready for Christmas. The kids have all had Christmas programs to attend. First we started with Jeni's very first play at school. She was a choral reader (third from the left - green bow) and did very well learning quite a bit of Luke Chapter 2 and singing all the beautiful songs.
Then we went to Nathan's Joy School Christmas play/party. He made a very cute Joseph. He and his Joy School friends all did a great job.

A few days later we went back to school to see Maddie's grade sing songs and share Christmas traditions from all around the world. For a class project each child had to learn about a different country and make a presentation about their Christmas traditions. Maddie learned all about Uruguay which is where my Mom went on her mission. Then of course, there has been all sorts of shopping, parties and running around. For our neighbor gifts this year I decided to bake a loaf of orange or cinnamon raisin bread for everyone. (The picture shows just over half of the bread I baked.) As things usually do, it turned out to be a bigger project than I expected and kept me very busy for several hours but it was fun to look at all of the loaves sitting on my counter and to visit with our friends as we dropped them off and wished them all a Merry Christmas.
I decided to get a head start on the wrapping and when the girls saw me bring the stuff up they wanted to help. They ended up doing most of the wrapping for me! They were very creative in their wrapping efforts but hey, I didn't have to do it all. Yay!!! Thanks girls!

Then the girls decided they wanted to make a little extra money for Christmas so they decided to set up a Hot Chocolate stand outside and sell cocoa. Since it was pretty cold nobody was out and business was very slow so they decided to go door-to-door. In the end I think they made $3.50. I've got a couple of entrepreneurs there!

Merry Christmas to me!!!!

2008-12-11T20:24:00.001-08:00

Tuesday morning I went in for my last regular appointment at the orthodontist. The plan was to take an impression so they could have my retainer ready for the “debanding” appointment next Tuesday. I was really nervous that the orthodontist was going to see something else that needed changing and put the appointment off again (it's happened twice already). But imagine my surprise and delight when they told me they had a cancellation and they were going to take my braces off right then! Yippee!!!! They took a quick impression, he made my permanent retainer right then and off came my braces a week before I was expecting them to. Merry Christmas to me!!!! So here is a before picture...

...the day I got the braces on...

...and an after picture.

I love my new smile! It makes me feel so beautiful and after three long years, what a relief it is to finally have everything all done.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2008-12-06T14:27:00.000-08:00

Last Friday we made our annual trek with Grandpa Moultrie up Weber Canyon to a tree farm. We wandered over the hillside until we finally found the perfect tree. It didn't take long since the kids were all freezing and after about 3 minutes they thought every tree looked great! We picked our trees, cut them down and tied them to the top of our car. The rope was so long that Bob tossed the rest of it in the back of the car where the kids were sitting. They held it tight and made sure that the trees didn't fall off on the way home! Thanks kids! We spent the rest of the day on Friday and Saturday decorating the real tree in our Family Room and the artifical tree in the Living Room. The kids all had such a great time decorating.Jeni and Nathan worked really hard and made the paper chains for the real tree and then everyone added the candy canes. As long as they are hanging on the tree the dog leaves them alone.

Later I tried to cut off my thumb with a chisel when I was chopping up white chocolate to make a molded nativity scene. Don't worry though, I saved the chocolate by yanking my hand out of the way before I could bleed on it!

Sunday morning I came downstairs to find the kids making presents to go under the living room tree. They were busy drawing pictures for everyone then they would fold them up, wrap them in blue paper and tie them with some red string they found. What sweethearts!

Congratulations!

2008-12-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

Monday night my brother Steve and his girlfriend Sarah came over to make the happy announcement that they are engaged!! They were so cute, bubbling over with excitement and happiness as Steve asked Maddie and Jeni what they would think of having a new aunt.

At first the girls didn't really understand what all the excitement was about but after we explained it to them they got really excited too. They have been playing wedding ever since. Maddie got dressed up in her pretty (but three sizes too small) blue dress, olive green/hot pink argyle socks and a Hawaiian wrap draped over her head like a veil. Then she walked tippy-toe down the "aisle" while Jeni ran ahead of her throwing "flower petals" up in the air to rain down on Maddie. They have been very excited when they found out they will be getting beautiful new dresses and they figured out how they want to do their hair - up in a bun with two roses, except that Maddie's hair isn't long enough to make a bun. Oh darn. They have also been asking if they can start calling Sarah "Aunt Sarah" now or if they have to wait until after the wedding.

So anyway, congratulations guys and welcome to the family Sarah! I can't imagine a better match for Steve or anyone else making him as happy as he has been since he met you!

I'm thankful for...

2008-11-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving! It's one of my favorite holidays. We had it at my house this year with my parents and two of my brothers so it was a small group but we had a good time together. Nothing like great food and great company to make an occasion special.

An eventful weekend

2008-11-25T09:26:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was a pretty busy one. It started when I came home from shopping and went to put the Thanksgiving turkey in the freezer. I opened the door and realized that things were on the squishy side. Sigh...the door had not been closed tightly, again. I finally decided to drag in the garbage can and clean out the freezer, a task we've been putting off for at least a year! Since I didn't know what was good and what wasn't it all went into the garbage can. I'm hoping that they will pick it up and not leave us a nasty note that the can is too heavy! Anyway, after I finished emptying it out I spent the rest of Friday afternoon and evening trying to defrost the freezer. I tried steaming it, letting the sun shine into the freezer, chipping it out and finally concluded that the fastest way was to pour hot water in the freezer over and over again until the ice finally melted. What a pain! But I will say this, there is nothing like the feeling of pride you get when you look at a dreaded, difficult job well done! I looked at my nice clean freezer (a fringe benefit of all the water!) with my lonely turkey sitting in it and I wanted to take a picture but I thought that might be going a little to far. Oh well!

Saturday morning was a lot more fun. Bob kept the rest of the kids while Grace and I went with some friends to see Twilight. It was a good show in spite of being low budget and a little bit cheesy! I enjoyed it and except for a few minutes in the middle of the movie, Grace was really good. After the show we went and got some lunch to fuel our analysis of the show and had a great time chatting. So, other than an embarrassing episode of wandering around the parking garage trying to find my car (I guess in our excitement to catch up to the other half of our group and go see this fine movie we forgot to pay attention to where we parked - Oops!) we had a great time! It's always fun to have a girls day out!

Sunday we got up and somehow we made it on time for church, I'm amazed that the building didn't fall down! It turned out it was a good thing we were on time because during the announcements the stake representative got up and made an "announcement of interest" that included announcing Bob was going to be ordained as a High Priest during Priesthood meeting. The bishop had talked to Bob about making him a H.P. several weeks ago (geez, that makes both of us feel OLD!) but there were no detail such as when. So when the first speaker got up Bob skipped out of the rest of Sacrament Meeting to try and track down his Dad to do the ordination. He was successful and it was a very nice ordination. Poor Bob, when the whole things was over with he told me "I guess that I have to get a suit now!". I know he's not looking forward to it, but I have to admit that I am. I think he will look very FINE in a nice suit! Love you Honey!

My baby is growing up!

2008-11-15T20:40:00.000-08:00

This week had been a busy one for Gracie. Sunday night she rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time. Then a few minutes later she rolled the other way, from her tummy to her back! She has also become really interested in things around her. She loves to try and grab toys or whatever she can get hold of and of course they all go straight to her mouth. Then on Thursday she tried her first solid food - rice cereal, yum! She really seems to like it and tries to grab the spoon and shove it in her mouth whenever it gets close to her!I'm not sure I'm ready for my sweet little baby to grow up so fast! But ready or not, here she goes!

Maddie's first piano recital

2008-11-08T21:16:00.000-08:00

Maddie had her first piano recital last night. She started taking lessons from Isabelle Stringham in September after school had started. I'm amazed how quickly she is learning and it's wonderful to see her learning to play on the same piano that I did.

Maddie played a piece called Black Cats Waltzing. It had a duet that went with it that she had me play with her. It was fun to do. She quickly had the piece memorized but I can't say the same. Oh well. She did a great job and really got a kick out of playing on the yellow piano. Way to go Maddie!

Honesty

2008-11-08T20:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight Grace and I took Maddie to the store to get a new coat. When we got to the store I put my wallet and Grace in her car seat in the cart and away we went. We didn't have any luck finding a coat so we put the cart away and went to another store. When we got there my heart fell when I went to get my wallet and realized that I had left it in the cart at the first store. We drove back as fast as we could, it had only been about 15 minutes but my wallet was nowhere to be seen. I checked with the cashiers but nobody had turned it in. All I could do was leave my name and phone number and go home and wait. I was so nervous and worried. Not only did I have some cash in my wallet, but my driver license, a credit and debit card, a Costco cash card with two weeks of gas money on it and all of our insurance cards. I was worried about the cash but I was much more worried about my driver license and the possibility of ID theft. What a world we live in! Maddie and I said a prayer as soon as we were back in the car that whoever found the wallet would be honest and turn it in. We went home and waited for a while before Bob and I decided to call the bank and had them put a hold on our cards. It was scary to think that in that moment all of our assets were locked up. We can't use our credit or debit cards and I couldn't even go to the bank and withdraw any cash because I had no ID! I never realized how much of my life I carry in my wallet! I couldn't even go to the library and get a book! It was such a helpless feeling topped off with fears of what future ramifications there might be if we didn't get it back.

We worried and stewed but thankfully it wasn't too long before a knock came at the door. There was a stranger who said his name was Carlos and he asked for me. When I came he reached into his coat and pulled out my wallet! He had found it at the store and since he works for Comcast and is familiar with the area he decided to return it to our home instead of the store. He gave it back to me with everything still inside of it, undisturbed. I was so relieved I could have kissed him. I tried to give him some cash for his help but he refused. Instead he shook all of our hands very warmly and disappeared into the night. I didn't realize how much worry I was really carrying until it was lifted and I could breathe again. We said a prayer of thanksgiving for an answered prayer and life got back to normal.

This experience has really made me stop and think about honesty and how important it really is. When we first realized that my wallet was missing Maddie was worried that somebody would accidentally buy it. It was kind of sad for me to explain to her that there are people who would take it and keep it instead of returning it. She is so innocent that I don't think that idea had occurred to her. Once it had she was so worried that she cried all the way home and off and on until it was returned. Honesty is necessary for a good community and I believe that most people are honest. It's sad that a few dishonest people have to make the rest of us wonder wether we can trust each other or not. It made me stop and wonder how honest I am and if there is room for improvement, I think there always is. I think that honesty in the little things we do and say, as well as the big things make a difference, even if nobody else knows. We do and that's what is important. So thank you Carlos, wherever you are for being honest, an answer to a prayer and a reminder to me and my family that honesty is truly important.

Election Results

2008-11-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night was kind of a tense one. I went to vote that morning and then Bob went after he got home from work. After the polls closed at 8:00 he went out to collect all of his lawn signs while I watched the results come in on the internet (I just watched the local stuff on the internet, I couldn't take the presidential stuff all over the TV). He would call every few minutes for an update. In the end Bob got 573 votes or 4.5% of all votes cast. When he ran two years ago he got just over 3%. It was kind of sad, we were hoping for more because of all the work and money that went into his campaign this time around. Bob has been quite down about losing because he is so passionate about politics and he really wants to make a difference. I guess he'll have to figure out a different way to do it, but if anyone can do that, it's Bob!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

Halloween was such a fun day. The kids looked really cute in their costumes. Maddie’s costume started out as a vampire. She had a long black wig to go with it but it was itchy so she decided to be a “Fair Maiden” instead. Jeni was a witch again, no big surprise since she has been a witch 4 out of the 6 Halloweens she has been around for. I was able to fix Nathan’s costume so he enjoyed being the Dragon and Grace was really cute as a little Jack-O-Lantern.

Friday turned out to be one big Halloween party! It started early when Maddie and Jeni got up and put on their costumes and away they went to school. We got Nathan dressed up in his Dragon costume and then we met the girls at school for the Halloween Parade and Carnival that the 7th and 8th grades put on. They had all sorts of game booths, treats and prizes. It was lots of fun.

After the carnival we brought the kids home and had a couple of hours before we started with trick-or-treating. The weather has been so nice and warm (mid 70’s) so I sent the kids out to play with their friends until it was time to go. This is the first Halloween I can remember where we took sweaters with us just in case it got cold but we didn’t need them. I love it! Anyway, first we went to all the Grandma’s and Grandpa’s and then to a couple of friends.

Then we took the kids around the neighborhood and ward and finally finished up at the Wright’s where we enjoyed popcorn balls and wassail, good company and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. After that we took our grumpy, sugar-high kids home and collapsed into bed. All in all it was a very fine day. Happy Halloween!

Third times the charm...I hope

2008-10-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

I had an orthodontist appointment this morning and for the third time I set up an appointment to get my braces off. The first appointment was way back in February but due to a broken bracket it got put off until April. When April rolled around we decided to go for another six months to see if I could get a permanent retainer on my top teeth. Dr. Luddington wasn't sure it would work but we decided it would be worth the extra time (no extra charge thanks to a contract I signed before I even started this odyssey). It seems that the extra effort was worth it because there is now room for the retainer, yeah!! So my fingers are crossed that nothing else will happen and come December 16th I will have a brand new smile to show the world!

The Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we went on a Joy School field trip to a local pumpkin patch. Maddie and Jeni were very excited to be able to go as well since they were out of school on Fall Break.

First we let the kids run around in a hay maze. They had so much fun!
Then we got a cart and picked out the perfect pumpkin, which was hard to find in 8 acres of pumpkins!
Then we found some really scary witches...
sat with some scarecrows...
and spooked some ghosts!

It was a lot of fun and now we have lots of pumpkins on our front steps. When we got home the kids had so much fun painting the small pumpkins. They are really looking forward to carving the rest of the pumpkins except for a white one we found that we are planning on cooking up in a pie after it's done it's tour of duty as a Halloween decoration. Yeah for multi-taskers!

A Poke in the Eye

2008-10-20T20:51:00.001-07:00

A few months ago, Bob and Nathan were playing when Nathan accidentally poked Bob in the eye. Bob responded in typical fashion when something startles or hurts him, meaning he let out a very loud yell of surprise. It scared poor Nathan half to death and reduced him to tears, but from this experience came two things. First of all came a great new game between the two of them where Nathan will sneak up on Bob and gently poke him (anywhere but the eyes!), then he shouts “Poke!” and runs away laughing knowing that Bob will chase after him and tickle him when he’s caught. It is so funny to watch the two of them poking each other.

The other thing that came from this is Nathans belief that the ultimate insult is a poke in the eye. He often comes to me claiming that Grace has poked him in the eye. I’m not really sure what he wants me to do about it other than give him a hug, explain again that Grace can’t control her hands and arms yet and then pretend to say sorry in Graces voice. Then he’s happy and away he goes. His funniest expression of a poke in the eye came last week when we were driving the kids out to school. The sun was just coming up over the mountains and was shining in our eyes. It was really frustrating Nathan who kept complaining about the sun. I guess I wasn’t making the sun go away like he thought I was suppose to because finally in a fit of anger he proclaimed “Mama, the sun poked me in the eyes!”

The First Snow

2008-10-13T21:33:00.000-07:00

We had our first snowfall of the season Saturday night and we woke up Sunday morning to find that winter had come. At first the kids were upset by this, they seemed to think that snow cannot come until after Halloween. They were very concerned that we were going to have to skip Halloween this year and it was especially traumatic since we just bought new costumes on Saturday and they haven’t quit wearing them since. When we reassured them that this was not the case they decided the snow was lots of fun. As soon as they got home from church they found snow clothes for everyone and out they headed to throw snowballs and make a snowman.

I went outside to watch the fun and take some pictures and I was struck by how pretty our roses were and how strange they looked against the snow. The two just don’t seem to go together! I guess I’d better enjoy the roses while I still can.

By the way, you can see one of Bob's official signs in the picture. I'm surprised how far 50 of them went and how often I see them as I'm driving around town. Go Bob!

Signs

2008-10-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

Bob has decided to run for House of Representatives for the Constitution Party again this year. He ran two years ago and in an effort to get more votes this time than last he decided to order 50 lawn signs. The signs didn’t come as soon as he expected and he was starting to get very frustrated, especially since his opponent has signs EVERYWHERE. Anyway, one morning he was worrying about the signs so Maddie and Jeni disappeared upstairs and a while later they came down with some signs they had made themselves. They wanted to use them so Bob took them around and they handed the signs out to some of our neighbors.

His official signs came a few days later and one evening we all piled in the car and took signs around. The kids sat in the back and banged on the signs like drums and made up a song that went something like “Vote for Bob, he’s not too goofy!” They make fine campaign managers!

Happy Birthday Jeni!

2008-10-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

Jeni is now officially six years old! I can’t believe that my kids are getting so big. I can’t possibly be that old myself, can I? Oh well.

We had Jeni’s birthday party on Monday night and were able to enjoy the company of many family members. Nana and Grandma Moultrie came and took Jeni birthday shopping after school and Jeni got the present that she’s “always wanted” (the one that I’d never heard of before I guess) which turned out to be a teddy bear stuffing machine. It came with three bear “skins” and a machine that you put the stuffing in, turn the crank and ta-da, you have your own teddy bear. Later on she got two Barbies, some Polly Pockets and some clothes. But I suspect that her favorite present of all may have been the $.88 box of candy that I bought on a whim and tucked into the package of clothes to make it sound interesting!

One of the great things about Jeni’s birthday being in October is that we can make fun Halloween themed cakes for her birthday. I found a recipe for a candy that was about the consistency of play dough and the flavor of the inside of a peppermint patty so Jeni and I spent the afternoon making a ghost, a black cat and pumpkins to put on her cake. We had fun spending the time together and ended up with a pretty darn cute cake to boot! Happy Birthday Jeni! I sure do love you!

Bedtime!

2008-10-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks Maddie and Jeni have decided to help get Nathan and Grace ready for bed at night. Jeni has decided that she is in charge of Grace and will take her and change her diaper and then put on her sleeper, singing made up songs to her the whole time. One of the songs that she made up for Grace goes to the tune “Hush Little Baby” and says

Hush little Gracie, don’t shed a tear.
Mommy’s going to hold you all night my dear.
We’ve been there and we’ve done that.
Hurry Mommy, hurry fast!

After Jeni gives me Grace and goes to get herself ready for bed I have to discreetly check and make sure that Grace’s diaper is on the right way. The other day I noticed that Grace’s onsie wouldn’t stay on the diaper, it kept slipping to one side. I finally opened it up and saw that Maddie had changed her without me knowing it and poor Grace had one whole cheek hanging out of her diaper! At least she hadn’t done anything yet…

Maddie helps Nathan get ready for bed and has come up with a really cute routine to distract him from the automatic “No” of a three year old. Nathan loves Thomas so she tells him, "Come on Nathan, we've got to hurry and go to all the stations so you can go drive Thomas. And if we aren't on time the train will leave without us." So first they head off to the "Flush and Swish Station" (he gets to go potty one last time – by the way, when he has to go he comes and tells me “Mom, I’ve got pee in me”, then I know we’ve got to hurry before he “makes an accident”). Next comes the "Soapy-soap station" (he washes his hands) then the "Wipey-wipe station" (he dries his hands). Then comes the "Warm and cozy station" (pajama time), the "Scrubby-brush station" (tooth brushing time) and last but not least, the "Head-bow station" which is prayers. Every once in a while she throws in "Well done, Nathan" and when they are finished she says "Wow Nathan, you are a very useful engine" in her best Sir Topham Hatt voice. Then it's time to go drive Thomas which is his bed. They have a good time with this game and it gets Nathan in to bed!

I am so lucky to have such great helpers!

Bob's new toy

2008-10-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Bob got a new toy. It is a metal lathe that he has been wanting for years and he finally ordered it online. It came on a cool, drizzly day and I panicked a little bit when the FedEx Freight guy came to drop it off and said he would need help getting it up the steep driveway. The only people I knew that were home are all the other moms that live in my neighborhood and I imagined a whole pack of us trying to get the 700 pound lathe up into the garage. But he assured me that I would be all the help he would need and that if they had packed it better so that it would sit on a pallet jack right he would have been able to do it himself. Anyway, he worked and worked to get the load balanced on the pallet jack and then angled up the driveway the right way and somehow we did it. Nathan thought the big box in the garage was the neatest thing ever, until Bob came home from work and opened up the crate. Then Nathan saw all the buttons, gizmos and wheels to turn and it was nearly impossible to drag him away from “Daddy’s new toy”. They have definitely had some major boy bonding time out in the garage! It took Bob several days to clean all the excess oil off the lathe and get it ready to put into position on his table in the garage. Then with the help of a rented engine hoist and three great neighbors (thanks guys!) it has finally settled into its permanent home.

While all the guys were doing their thing with the lathe I called all the kids inside, including Emily and Ashley who had followed their Daddy over. Emily disappeared upstairs to play with Maddie and Jeni while Nate and Ashley decided to play dress up together. I helped Nathan into his dragon costume that we just got from Costco for Halloween. As you can see I need to figure out how to make it fit him better – I would like grandchildren someday! Ashley wanted to be the princess and once they were dressed up they had the best time playing together. Nathan would chase after Ashley flapping his arms and growling while Ashley ran away shrieking as the damsel-in-distress, at least until she got tired of it and turned around to chase the dragon away instead! They had a lot of fun playing together. It’s fun to see Nathan growing up and learning the social skills he needs like how to play with other kids. Sometimes that doesn’t come very naturally!

Life so far

2008-09-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about starting a blog for quite a while now but the ladies in my book club inspired to me to finally start one.

Life has been very hectic lately since Grace's birth last June but now that school has started and she is three months old, I finally feel like I might be getting a grip on things again. The kids have been in school for a few weeks now and they are loving it. Maddie is in third grade and Jeni started Kindergarten this year. She has been particularly excited for school since she has had to wait for so long! When I took her in to find out who her teacher was going to be Maddie said "Whoever you get will be fine but you had better get Mrs. Durrant!" Sure enough Jeni got Mrs. Durrant and so far loves her just as much as Maddie did. I found out at the school open house last week that Maddie still stops in and sees all her old teachers almost every day.

Nathan also started school this year. He goes to Joy School with four other girls from our ward. Poor guy, he is the youngest and the only boy. I think he will keep things stirred up, but hopefully not too much. Anyway, Joy School is a co-op kind of deal where I take turns teaching with all the other moms. It works out really well and the more I do Joy School, the more I love the program. The first unit that Nathan just finished up was Joy of the Body. I think his favorite activity so far was fingerpainting with chocolate pudding in one of the lessons talking about our senses.

Grace is growing like a weed! It's fun to see how fast she changes. She is filling out so much and I really think she looks a lot like Jeni did when she was a baby. She is starting to grin for everybody and is trying her best to talk. She makes those adorable baby coos and the other day she surprised herself by giggling at her siblings playing. She hasn't been able to repeat it yet but I think it's very close.