i LF u

Jacob did this a week or so ago. It's a cookie he made for me in CookieDoodle (iPhone/iPad app, I highly recommend it :). I was really surprised how well he sounded it out and with his handwriting. I just came across it again in my photostream. He used an 'f' instead of a 'v', but we haven't covered v in his reading lessons yet. I worry a little about him going to full day kindergarten next year, he's such a busy boy. But then he does something like this, and I am reminded that he really is ready for it. Love you Jacob!




(ps- my recent posting has been a little 'Jake heavy'. Hopefully I will balance that out soon. The other kids have been busy learning, growing, and playing too!)

...because He was there too

Jacob gets to color during Sacrament Meeting, after the blessing and passing of the sacrament.  Today, he was working really hard on this picture of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist.  I wasn't paying much attention, but after several minutes of working and talking to himself, he wanted my attention.  He pointed out Jesus, and John, and then, pointing to the blue stick figure on the right, "...and this is God, because He was there too when Jesus Christ was baptized." He was so matter-of-fact about it too!    Then he made some marks ('writing') above the stick figure's head that started out "This is my Beloved Son..."

When he finished this masterpiece, he moved on to another lds.org picture, and used a pencil to put "Power Ranger masks" on everyone.  It was a short, but sweet moment.  It's always nice to get a little feedback that your children are learning good things from you and from Church.  If you saw how 'busy' Jacob is during Primary, and Family Home Evening, and Family Scripture Time, you'd understand why these little moments with him take me a little by surprise.  Except that they happen often, so in that way, it's just part of who he is.

Spring Break, part 2a- Park in Durango

We arrived in Durango pretty early (it's only a few hours from Alamosa).  So, we went to a little park for lunch.  I got to try out the sports/action setting on my new camera for the first time.  I love what you can capture when it's taking multiple shots per seconds, so fun!

Andrew, Eden, and Jacob running- look at that form!

Charis clapping:

                                      

Spring Break 2013, part 1

The kids actually had a few days off before we started our trip.  We left on Tuesday and got home Saturday, just in time to get ready for Scott's promotion to Major!  Our first stop was The Great Sand Dunes near Alamosa.  I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but knew there was a creek that kids enjoyed playing in, but going in the middle of summer, the sand was too hot.  I guess late March is too early, because the creek wasn't running yet, plus it wasn't warm enough for swim suits.  So, the new sand toys went unused in the back, and we decided to hike to the top instead.  We were lucky to be there while the sun was shining and it wasn't too windy.  We hiked most of the way in our bare feet, and everyone made it to the top!  After that, all they wanted was the hotel pool.  (In fact, if you ask any of the kids about the trip, the first thing they'll tell you about is the hotels and the pools :)

Our destination, from the start

Charis did great in the Ergo- backpack style

Along the way- it really is surreal to be in the middle of the brown sand dunes and see those green and white mountains in the background

One of the steeper sections of the hike

Jacob stopped once or twice to build, just like he does in his 'sandbox' at home.  This sand was so clean though, like the natural beaches in Hawaii, no like the sandy dirt we have in our yard.

Another steep section, Jake decided it would be better if we crawled

Making it to the top of that ridge, with encouragement from Eden and Andrew :)

Fortunately, there was another group at the top and one of the guys offered to take a picture of all of us together

Barefeet, and SNOW!  Yes, that is snow under the sand on the top ridge.  Evidence of the change and growth still happening there.

Rosy cheeks, and fast asleep, back at the start.

New Camera

Back in March, I finally bought the Canon 60D package Costco, after eyeing it at Costco for over 2 years.  The good thing about waiting/procrastinating: I had researched DSLRs quite extensively and knew this was what I wanted, and it fit more than comfortably in our budget, plus the price had dropped a couple hundred dollars!  And when Costco ran $200 coupon on it only a couple weeks after I bought it (instead of the $100 off that was their regular offer), they gave me the difference back.  I love Costco, so glad I don't have to say goodbye for the 2 years we're in New Jersey!  But, I digress...  I have wanted an DSLR camera for a while- for better zoom capabilities and faster shutter speeds that would make taking photos of the kids so much easier when they are in the school play, or racing at Landsharks, etc.  The Canon 60D is a fairly basic, but high quality DSLR camera, a good fit for my 'needs'.  We got it just in time for our Spring Break roadtrip of Southern Colorado, so I had some time to read the manual a bit, and play around.  It is so fun!  Something about the big lens and the fast shutter sound (especially in the sports setting), makes anyone feel like a pro.  I still have a lot to learn, but I seriously love the shots we've been able to get so far.

These are the first photos I took with the camera.  I was sitting on our greenish couch in the living room, and Charis is on the fireplace hearth in the family room, a good 40 feet or so away, in the basic setting.  It's so much easier to capture certain moments when you can stay far enough away that the kids don't know they're being photographed.  The only downside, isn't really the camera, it's just that I still haven't completely figure out how to organize all our photos so that I can find them again on this computer. That's what I've been working on lately, so hopefully I can get to posting more frequently and consistently.

The funny things Jacob does

It's warm and cozy (especially when there's still laundry in there), there's a shelf just right for optimal iPad viewing, and it's just his size!  When we can't find Jake or the iPad, this is a good place to look.

Some recent quotes from Jacob:

"Daddy, you know, sometimes I name my sock Bob."

(Out-of-the-blue observations)
"It's hard to sing with your mouth closed." and "This is what I look like with my pants on."

Andrew the Bobcat

Andrew is so excited to be able to participate in Cub Scouts now.  At the February Pack Meeting, he earned his Bobcat award.  They have a 'face painting' ceremony, where the Pack Leader reads a statement that corresponds with certain marks that a parent (me!) puts on his face.  I'm happy to see him enjoying it so much. He got his first Pinewood Derby kit at the pack meeting, the derby will be in April.  Fun times!

Landsharks Fall 2012

Eden and Andrew had an awesome season!  Eden ran 2-3 miles for practice with the Great Whites, and she was so happy and excited when Andrew and one other 2nd grader got to join them too.  Eden ran 1.5 miles each race.  Andrew ran 1 mile for the first race, then 1.5 for the last 2 races.  They both qualified for the Citywide Championship!  Unfortunately, it was held on a Sunday this year, so they didn't participate.

Eden's Times (1.5 miles):
9/17 12:16
9/24 11:41
10/1 12:08

Andrew's Times:
1 mile: 9/17 8:29
1.5 miles: 9/24 12:14
                10/1 12:40

Something was off on the last night, everyone's times were higher than expected in the 1.5 mile race (they run the boys and girls together with a one minute delay on the girls).  In any case, they did awesome, and I am so proud of them!

Staining the front

A while ago, the owner had someone come to repair some woodpecker damage, re-stain the upper level of the house.  We kept the leftover stain, but it wasn't enough for the lower level, and we intended to buy more and finish the job so top and bottom would match.  Last weekend, we (Scott) finally got around to it, and let the kids help out too!

Eden and Jake hard at work.  Funny that 'upside' down was the best angle for Jake right then.

The light is cool on this one.

The tools of the trade.

Some collateral damage.  I think Jake was a little 'brush-happy'.

One week TDY

I was going through our photos to see what else might belong on the blog.  I noticed what I thought were random pictures of building from Washington, DC. in the middle of the rest of our photos. Then I remembered we use Photo Stream, which means any pictures taken from either of our iPhones or the iPad is automatically pushed into a collection on all our Apple devices including the iMac.  Anyway, there were quite a few pictures from kids using my phone (unbeknownst to me), there were pictures of a couple other 'events' here at home, and there were the pictures Scott took while he was TDY to DC. So, I thought it might be fun to play around with the features of iPhoto, and made this slideshow.  Enjoy!

Maybe I need to explain a few of the photos.  One day I was in the middle of something when Charis woke up crying from her nap.  Jake said he would go help her be happy.  There are quite a few pictures around the house that the kids took on Monday afternoon when we were getting ready to go to Landsharks.  Then there are photos from the race.  The pictures from our kitchen I took one morning after I came downstairs and discovered that Jake had helped himself to a yogurt- with ketchup, food coloring and sprinkles, I'm sure it was delicious as it sounds.  He must have taken the ketchup out of the fridge first, and when he was done with it (it was nearly empty), stuck it in the container where I keep random things, like food coloring and sprinkles.  Maybe he made some attempt at cleaning up his mess, because I found more food coloring in the sink.  There was also powdered sugar involved, but it didn't show up in the photos very much.  The last picture is how Charis sets herself up every time I put her in the carseat lately: both hands firmly gripping the handle bar.  Maybe she's bracing herself for whatever chaos is about to ensue?  At least she has  a smile on!  It was fairly typical week around here in mid-September.  Then there are the pictures showing a few glimpses of what Scott was up to in our nation's capital that week.  The pictures are in the same order I found them in Photo Stream, I did delete some of the photos the kids took (there were A TON!).

Conference Journals

I was recently called into Activity Days, along with a couple other ladies.  I know my sister Tricia is new to this calling too.  So, I thought I would share some of the ideas here.  I made one of these journals for Eden last General Conference from this idea I saw on Pinterest.  (I didn't realize until too late that the pictures were out of date- Elder Wirthlin had passed away and Elder Anderson had been called as an apostle).  So I got this PDF from Sugardoodle, made a screen-shot, saved it as a JPEG and added the vertical text using Picasa.  (Yes, I am feeling pretty proud of myself for figuring that all out on our not-so-new-but-I-still-don't-really-know-how-to-use iMac.)

So here's the new image.  I printed it through Picasa as 5x7, shrink to fit, on letter size (8.5x11) paper.  That way, when I selected more than 1 copy (20 to cover all our girls and leaders), they printed 2 per page.  I think it came out pretty awesome!

So, at our next activity we will talk about the importance of listening to and following the counsel of the prophets and apostles.  The girls will cut the pictures and use packing tape to put them in an empty lined notebook, either as tabs, or just onto the page.  Hopefully this will help them learn to get more from their General Conference experience.

Eden is 10!

   We officially have a "tween", we are in double digits.  And suddenly Eden cares a little more about what she wears and how her hair looks.  We celebrated by taking her on a special outing with just me and Scott (and Charis).  She's been begging to go to the aquarium in Denver ever since we moved here.  It's definitely not the best aquarium we've ever been too (we are a mile high and no where near the ocean), more like an attraction that includes an aquarium.  But we still had lots of fun!  And it was nice to spend time with just Eden, talking and listening and connecting a little more than we usually can when the whole family is together.

First stop, the bubble by the ticket counter:

Inside the aquarium:

That's one BIG fish!

There were a few of these 'bubbles' where you could crawl under the aquarium and look through the dome a that the fish all around

Charis had a good time too!

Then there was the area that had lots of different attractions, Eden choose face painting...

and feeding the stingrays....

Of course, we had to take pictures in the shark tank survivor suit! 

The last stop was Yogi Bear's Wild Ride 4D Ride.  Just Scott and Eden went, I took Charis back to car to feed her before we headed to lunch at IKEA (Eden's choice).

Waiting for their turn on the 4D ride

Then we headed home and had dinner, cake, and presents with our neighbors the Meinholds.  They were also the ones who watched the boys for us so we could have this special date with Eden.  Thanks Meinholds!