Abagail's Talk

Abagail had a talk for Primary today. She sat down 10 minutes before church and wrote it. I really liked hearing her take on our family so I asked her permission to share it on the blog:

I know my family has important responsibilities. All of my family has to work together to get through the day.
My dad is the head of my family. I know he has very important responsibility. If I did not have my dad it would be hard to live. My dad has to work to make our living.
My mom has responsibility also. She makes our food, buys our clothes, and takes care of us. My mom is usually dealing with Amelia but she still has time for us!
Gabriel also has responsibilities. One of them is watching the boys when me, Katrina, and mom go somewhere.
Katrina's responsibilities are going to school and taking care of the kids when mom and Gabe go running, and dad is asleep.
My responsibilities are similar but not the same. Of course I go to school but I do not take care of the family. I have to go to church and learn the gospel.
Simon's responsibilities are going to school and church. He also plays with Oliver to keep him happy.
Oliver's responsibilities are going to church. He is not old enough to go to school but when we are at school he helps mom around the house.
Amelia has responsibilities too. She makes us happy. Without Amelia life wouldn't be the same.
Now you can see all the family has responsibilities. Even if you don't know it.

I thought Abagail did such a cute job with her talk. I loved how she included each person.

Since writing her talk we have discovered another one of Amelia's responsibilities...
Now that Amelia is mobile, she has become our "human vacuum" getting all kids of nasty stuff off the floor if I don't see it fast enough... Guess it's time to deep clean.

Surrounded by Bookworms!

So here I sit on a Saturday night. I look around and my kids are all reading - except Oliver and Amelia of course.

Gabriel is reading some series about an apprentice (huge books) after completing all 10 books of Tennis Shoes among the Nephites in less than a month.
Katrina is on a new series (huge books) - after just completing the Harry Potter series for the 3-4 time.
Abagail has just finished the Harry Potter series for the 4th time and is starting over.
Simon is starting in on the Magic Tree House series. (He tried Harry Potter but it was a bit much for a 1st grader to tackle on his own.)

Oliver is a bookworm too. He loves to have me or Simon read to him, over and over and over.

Allen just shakes his head at all of it. Of course I know exactly where my children get it from -- ME! I would join in if I didn't always have so many other things to do. It is really fun to read the books they read and then have these detailed conversations about them. (Plus they are juvenile books so there is no trash - hooray!)

All too soon Saturday night will be date night - until then I will enjoy every minute of these simple, innocent nights.

Katrina - super science chef

Katrina and her friend entered the science fair this year. They decided to make pancakes and rank them according to taste and nutrition. The original project would compare "from scratch" recipes with store bought brands. Unfortunately time ran short so they settled for "What flavor do you like best".

Worked for us - we got to be the test group. Winner was blueberry pancakes.

She's mobile!

Life as we know it is about to change...
Amelia is mobile! She learned to crawl. It took a day or two of scooting and then she was off.
I guess it's really time to clean my carpets now...
(She love it too. No more being left behind. I used to be able to put her in one room with toys and go work in another room - not anymore.)

Random Photos

Just because I think they are cute...

Spring Break #2

More photos from the Witte Museum during spring break...


Checking out the dinosaur exhibits. Unfortunately this was pretty much all they had...just one room. After taking my first few photos I was instructed that we were not to use flash in this exhibit. Oops. Hence the photos where the kids are all blurry...they think it's a cool effect.


The kids spent a good amount of time building the wall of King Tut's tomb. There was a red button that would cause the earth to shake and tumble the wall. It was soooo funny at first...after a dozen times of the wall crashing before being finished the kids were guarding that button with their lives. We also saw a mummy replica. Abagail appreciated the inclusion of this display about as much as the taxidermy (see comments in post #1).


Making music. There was a large outdoor area where the kids could basically make lots of loud noise. It was all about sound and I'm sure scientific but I didn't get close enough to read any of the information. It sure was loud. The kids loved it...all but Simon. He is a bit sensitive to noise. Simon did explore the area at a rare moment when he was the only one over there. Otherwise he stayed far away. Amelia wasn't real impressed either. She was ok as long as I kept her ears covered.

All in all it was a fun way to spend a day of our spring break.

Spring Break 1

This year during Spring Break we headed to the Witte Museum in S.A. with cousins Ryan & Manissa Coleman and their neighbor, Tamara.

The museum was soooo crowded due to it being a free day during spring break. We did a lot of waiting in line.
We had never been to the museum before. It was a cool place.

If I had been more successful at keeping my six children in a group - separate from the other hundreds of children - it would have been less stressful. The rule was "You need to be able to see mom at all times" and "Tell mom if you want to go somewhere else". Oliver and Gabriel had the hardest time with this; the others did very well. After a few lectures they all "remembered" to stick together and we had a good time. My sister-in-law, Yaw, was an absolute life-saver helping me out. Apparently I am not yet ready to solo my kids in a SUPER crowded outing. (Or more accurately, THEY are not ready yet.)


Exploring the activities in the children's section. Lot's of hands-on fun. I loved the picture of Katrina looking at a big, hairy sand crab (top of collage). She was pretty freaked out. Abagail kept her eyes closed through the entire exhibit featuring the taxidermy animals. "Eww, gross, that's disgusting, I can't look". We were there for quite awhile too. Should have got a picture of that...


Discovering in the river area.

Oliver's New Chore

Oliver has joined the ranks of the "Big Kids". He has received his first kitchen chore assignment. (Previously he was a roamer...helping me with any chore I was doing.)

Oliver has the task of wiping down place mats, cleaning off the table and wiping down the chairs after each meal. Sounds like a lot for a 4-year-old. I offered to help him the first time to teach him how to do it. Oliver was upset with me. He told me that he knew how to do it and didn't want help. He was very excited.

Today the novelty has worn off. After lunch he grumped and complained about how hard it was to do the chore. He did a very thorough job though proving that he knows how to do it and without help too.

Fast forward to now. We just ate dinner. I mentioned that everyone was to do kitchen chores. Oliver groaned, "But I just got it all clean...now it is dirty again. Now it's going to be hard!"

I thought, "Welcome to my world".

P.S. Oliver is cleaning as I write this. He is singing away at his version of "Called to Serve". I hear singing and things tumbling to the floor - I assume from the table as he cleans. I hesitate to check on him since he is working so happily now...

(Love his expression in the photo - he is scrubbing hard.)

Our Blurr

Gabriel had his 1st track meet of the season. It started at 3pm after school. The younger kids and I left around 7pm, before Gabriel had even run. It was too cold and windy - and Simon was sick. Allen brought the older kids home after 10pm. The track meet wasn't even over yet. I had no idea they went that long or late.

Gabriel did great! He ran in the 200 meter sprint and the 1600 meter (1 mile). There were 7-8 Jr. High Schools competing. Gabriel got 4th place in both his events, earning points for his school.

Amelia and Company

More random shots of my cutie pie. She's 6-7 months old in these.

I love how she is all bundled up in one photo, except she has bare feet. (That was the day of our fire alarm mishap. It was cold with all the doors and windows open.)

Birthday Celebrations!

We celebrated Simon (7) and Abagail's (10) birthdays at the local bowling alley.

It was crazy with 15 kids and only 1 adult - me - supervising. Allen stayed to help get things going. Then he thankfully took Amelia with him which was a HUGE help.

We had a great time.

Some of My Family

I snagged these photos off of Christina's facebook...

Just some additional photos of my mom, sisters, and our kiddos from the Missouri trip.

Beautiful Blooms

Such a sweet husband and dad we have.

For Valentine's day Allen ordered me these beautiful flowers and fuzzy bear. It was a huge surprise. Abagail sat there and admired the bear - just shy of glowing green with envy. Little did she know that dad had a surprise in store for his daughters too. They both received cute fuzzy bears that they lovingly dressed up in Amelia's clothes. (Coat, hat, scarf, etc.) The new bears, Valentine and Kelly came to the airport to welcome me home. Huge smiles all around.

The kids and I dried the rose petals for potpourri.

Missouri Photos

This is the final batch of Missouri photos. I thought I had taken much more, turns out I did, just with other people's cameras.

So we have a couple of photos of Christina and Nathanael at the reception. They look so very nice. It was a lovely wedding and reception. I was so grateful to be able to be there.

There is a couple of random pictures with Amelia at the reception - since she is my star. Cousin Lauren took such great care of her while I was busy helping out.

There is a shot with the babies on the couch. Stacey looks tired. Perhaps because she and Christina stayed up til 4 a.m. or later perusing music for the reception.

Then there is a cutie photo of Cindy, Christina, and Stacey. The photo doesn't show it but they were swaying and singing along with the music. It was very cute.

It was a great weekend. Lots to do; not much sleep. Flew out Friday a.m.; came home Sunday p.m. It was quick and a bit crazy at times but I wouldn't have missed it!

Hanging out with the Babies

The three big cousins with the three baby cousins. Another photo group from our Missouri trip.

Packed in like Sardines

Amelia and I went to Missouri in February for Christina's wedding.

At the airport we met up with some members of my family. There was my mom, my sister Stacey and her son Benjamin, and my sister Cindy and her son Canyon. So we rented this minivan. In it we squished four adults, three infants, three car seats, three strollers, 5 suitcases and 4 baby bags/backpacks. At first look (when empty) I was thinking how roomy the interior of the minivan was compared to my own. Once packed in I quickly realized that it was pretty cramped.

We spent many hours in that minivan. I was very glad to have been the designated driver. I had the most comfortable spot in the van.

I can't remember why we were laughing in this particular photo. It was Friday after setting up for the reception. I do remember it had something to do with finding a dumpster, in the freezing cold, in the dark, being instructed to drive around to find it...when it was 3 feet from the car. Then laughing again as we found it to be locked. It must have been one of those "had to be there" moments. I do know that we thought it was hilarious. Then again, we had been giggling together the entire evening - I guess we just enjoyed being together.

I do remember why I was laughing and Stacey was not-so laughing in this photo. We had joined Christina at Walmart at midnight to purchase food items for the reception and other last minute things. After spending a couple of hours we went to load everything into the van. It was COLD...VERY COLD for this girl who is used to Texas. Stacey was carefully placing the grocery bags into the now organized minivan. Did I mention that I was COLD. I began taking the bags and tossing them into the van. Again - it was probably a "had to be there" moment. We were still giggling but I think by this time it may have been more due to lack of sleep. Stacey's look is the priceless one.

Missouri Visit

Here are some pics from setting up the reception on Friday night.
I don't know where Benjamin is, must be hanging out with Stacey.
But...here are cutie pictures of Canyon and Amelia getting acquainted.