Compatibility Game

Last night the kids were playing one of our board games - Compatability. I love games that everyone can play in - here we've got all ages from the 6 year old little sister to the almost 16 years big brother, and they're all playing nicely together. After refreshing their minds as to the rules of the game, they were having fun and all laughing, so I thought I'd capture the moment ~

It's kind of a marriage or dating couples game, but the kids play it with each other ~ fun way to see who thinks alike! Mel and Hyrum were a team, and Joseph and Ethan and Lily and Wesley. It makes for an interesting game when you have a little first grader playing, who doesn't really understand the rules - she's like a wild card for whoever is her partner, makes it funny. Wesley got Lily during this game. Wesley made it funny too, cause he gets the word wrong occasionally. On one of the turns the word was "addict" and Wesley thought it was "attic" - so he picked his cards accordingly. When he showed a card that was just all black and also a card with a question mark on it they asked him to explain how those represented "addict". "Cause 'attics' are dark and confusing!" When they figured out he was doing the wrong word they all laughed, and agreed he had chosen okay cards for "attic". Fun game.

Also, sometimes the kids don't play a card that describes the word... sometimes they (Hyrum & Ethan) just put the "old man" on every turn and find a way to make him fit. Word is "weapon" ~ yeah, he looks like a guy that would carry a weapon. Word is "trust" ~ he looks like a grandpa, and you can trust grandpas. Word is "threatening" - yeah, he looks scary and threatening! Made me laugh - "Guys, you gotta decide, is he trust worthy or threatening! He can't be both!" He's the joke of the family. Sorry old man person, whoever you are.

It's a fun game. We first played this years ago in college with one of our high school friends, Jeff, and his wife. It was so fun that first time for us, we got it and it's been a family favorite.

Weekend

This morning Corey headed off to Brazil. He went to bed last night at 7 and woke up at 4 am, trying to prep his body for the 5 hour time difference. Owen was awake to see him off, and Melodie came too. The rest of the kids were still asleep when I took him to the airport. Corey was watching "Inside Out" to try and wake himself up.

We left here at 8 am to drop him off at the airport, then I took Melodie to Orchestra, that started at 9. Killed an hour at Target doing some Christmas brainstorming before I headed back to pick her up at 10:30. Then I hurried home for a Relief Society Luncheon with the ladies in my ward who serve in the Relief Society. Quiche, orange bread, cashew butter with apples. Owen was nice and fell asleep at the luncheon. Then home for a second before going to my neighbor's house for a "Pop-up Boutique" where I saw cute jewelry, lip stain, hand painted cute crafty stuff, Lulu skirts and I was introduced to the amazing Norwex wash cloths. I got two of them for too expensive of a price, but wow, they are something else. Mel and I have been washing windows and wiping the underside of our counter - you know, attacking all those impossible to get off driplets of hard dried milk and gunk and who knows what. And ta-da, they're all gone. Just water and the Norwex cloth. Pretty cool. Going to research it some more before I get more of them, but wondering how I haven't heard of these yet? Before I get more of their products, though, I shall try and find as good of a product that isn't MLM, cause MLM just rubs me the wrong way. I hate hosting parties and making everyone feel pressured to buy something so I can get a better deal. I've only hosted a MLM thing once in my life, and I felt guilty even extending the invitations. I think MLM doesn't sit well with most people. I'm glad I found Eden's Garden so I didn't have to host a Doterra party, cause I do love essential oils and want to share them without people thinking I'm trying to make a buck off them. So I'll let you know what I find for the microfiber antibacterial silver in the thread cloths. :) Going to look more into e-cloth.

So, after the boutique, I came home and made Joseph and Ethan come help me try to get the snow and ice off of our blessed north facing driveway. We were out there for over an hour when my nice neighbor came over to help. He brought his snowblower and a shovel and scraper and rubber hammer. He got almost all of it off, then he got his salt for the last of it. He was so nice to come help us in our plight. Corey didn't have a chance to get our snowblower checked out - last spring the pull cord to start it broke off, so I thought we were out of luck and would have to buy a new one, I didn't know where to go to get it repaired. But Woody showed me how and where to plug it in for the electric start, so now we are good to go! The forecast says it's going to snow on Monday, so I wanted to have a fresh start on the driveway which was why we were all out there. And now that I can still use our snowblower, well I'm just happy in heaven. When it snows, I'll be out there. If it's during the night, I can get it cleaned off while the kids get ready for school. They all get to leave nice and early with Joseph cause I can't do the two trips out there at different and overlapping times all by myself. So, should be a busy week, but so grateful for wonderful neighbors and for a clear driveway! It was a busy and blessed day. Praying for Corey to be safe, praying for Paris, and giving thanks for wonderful neighbors and blessings.

Ethan Playing His Sax

I think he's pretty good

I'm glad to be married to a musician and that he's so talented and inspiring these kids to be musical as well. We don't nag them to practice anymore, they've gotten so good that they think it's fun. :)

This one got posted on his band's facebook, pretty fun!

Drawing Lesson

The little girls have all been drawing up a storm. Lily recently gave Sophi a lesson on proper technique...

"Dwaw a ciwcle for the face, now dwaw two ciwcles for the eyes..." Sophi performed very well, much better than Lily's student of yester-year, Corey. Good job Sophi! A few more finishing touches ~

Turn the page and do it again. This time on your own. Well done, and now you sign your name. Lily helped her spell Sophia. S... O... P... H... I... A.

ZOBHIA. Close enough!

Jibberish

Yesterday Natalie was very excitedly talking about something. She had been going on for a few minutes, I was glad she kept going when I started recording,
Made me laugh. I love little delightful moments like this.

Who Mayor

Our mornings start early and at different times for everyone. Joseph wakes up at 5:45 to leave at 6:15 for his before school band practice. I take him, and as soon as I get back home at 6:45 the jr. high kids are heading out with Corey for their before school jazz band practice. Then I get everyone else up and ready to head out the door at 8:30. So we have three school departure times, making for a 2.5 hour morning rush, if a rush can last 2.5 hours. So that is what our usual school mornings are like. And that is why we haven't figured out a way to do morning scripture time. So we read our scriptures at night. Night time isn't busy, but there are plenty of distractions. On Halloween night, with kids too high on sugar, we're trying to get a little spiritual but Joseph was causing a distraction as he was looking in the hall mirror and making faces... "Mom!!! Doesn't this look like a 'Who'?"

"Don't I look like the mayor from 'Horton Hears a Who?!?'" he asked again even more excitedly

which cause him to make himself laugh...

"Joseph! Pay attention to what we're reading!" ... "(wait, do it again...) Yeah, you look like a who! You're funny"

His siblings said they thought he looked a little bit like Steve Carell, WHO wouldn't you know is the voice for the mayor! Joseph channeling his inner Carell...

He had a hard time blowing out his upper lip without laughing and ruining the funny face.

..and then making the rest of us laugh...

And then everyone is making faces. All right, I guess we're done for tonight. What a goof. I'm glad we find such fun in something so simple as making faces. We've been doing it for years, might be a signature family trait/trademark. Here are some funny faces from years past~
While eating grapes.
In the elevator in Chile.
Melodie with broken glass
While rearranging furniture
Mel as a food critic
Good times, good times.

Little Man

I haven't been keeping up on the blog very well lately. Right now it's a Sunday evening and I've been whippin' out posts here to try and catch up, but truth be known, I was about 5 days behind.... because when Owen has given me any uninterrupted time this past week, I've told myself I should take advantage of it and get some shut eye, not blog...

So, yes, Owen... He hasn't been very nice to me. I dare say he's been my most difficult and challenging infant. My milk is gone cause he wasn't patient enough to wait for it to letdown. And cause I couldn't keep up with his demand. And as we try to keep up with the other 9 kids, I knew I didn't have it in me to try and pump, so that's how it's gone. The milk is gone. He probably would have told me if he could "Look, Mom, you've done good. I know you like to brag about how you nursed Natalie exclusively for 7 months, but you're body ain't what it used to be. You've been through the war, and it's okay. Please, help me out, I'm starving here..." So it's over between me and Owen. No escaping to my bedroom to nap and nurse a baby all day. He's just taking formula, and sometimes I think that is barely able to keep up with his demand. At 2 in the morning, when he thinks he's starving and I've got the water running waiting for some warm water to come out.... gosh, you'd think someone was twisting a knife in his back he's screaming so loud. I admire Corey's ability to shut it out.

During the wee hours of the morning I will talk to Owen and tell him "Look, if any of your older siblings had behaved the way you're behavin', well there's a good chance that I would not have had another child, which means YOU would not be here... so I think you best start shapin' up, little man!"

 (I LOVE YOU OWEN!)

I love those little hands, I love your little bald head, I love you more than sleep. Sleep will come, you're only going to be my baby for a little while. Cherish the moments. I'll even try to cherish the moments at 3 a.m.

And Corey's not a slacker letting me handle Owen by myself - it's just what we're both used to since it used to be that I was the only means of milk for the baby. Corey's on toddler duty and always takes care of Natalie when she wakes up screaming bloody murder, or when Sophi wakes up calling for him, or when Lily starts running around from room to room half asleep cause she has to go to the bathroom. Someday we'll both get sleep! Until then, we shall continue to pray for strength and sanity to not fail us.

Playing Risk

The kids are getting into board games. These are pictures from the game on Sunday, when the game didn't end with a winner or dictatorship, but rather with a little hard feelings followed by a fun and long family talk.

Owen slept through the whole thing. He sleeps so well when everyone is home and the house is noisy.

Then during the day, when it's just me and two little girls... during the day he prefers to sleep in my arms. Not entirely his fault during the day, cause many times I know he would be fine to sleep in his crib but then Natalie comes and rattles the bed or will find him in the corner where I've hidden him and shoves a bottle or binki in his face or does something else to startle him awake. And then at night time, ah.... sweet peaceful slumber time, when it's so quiet... yes... that... THAT is when he haunts my dreams. His preferred haunting hours are between 2 and 4. I look over at Corey with some jealousy and then text him or my BFF Nicole and tell them that Owen is driving me crazy, it helps prevent me from screaming "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!?!" at the top of my lungs (Brian Regan quote 2:29). Yeah, not gettin' much sleep these days. 

Natalie's Art

Natalie was drawing some pictures during scripture time this past weekend. She draws a scribble in the middle of a white sheet of paper, looks at it approvingly, and then tosses it aside as she goes on to the next white sheet of paper.

(We've been going through a lot of paper...)

That picture above is a moon! She drew it and said "Moon!" We were very proud of her. She also drew this smiley face. Pretty good you cute little two year old! Natalie is fast on Sophi's heels as the next smiley face artist!

Her cute little pictures were a small distraction from scriptures, but not too bad - no worse than our normal distractions.

Good drawing, Natalie! Now time for prayer!

Someone else said it, but as often happens, after prayer Natalie or Sophi will want a turn. I love to see their little folded arms and hear their little reverent mumblings. Love these sweet little girls.

Family Bonding

On Sunday night we had a big long family talk. I love it when those talks happen, when everyone is in the zone and just keeps having something more to say, it's fun. The family bonding started by us trying to resolve the fight that happened during their game of Risk - claims of cheating and people not being nice - ganging up on Joseph (Wesley kept declaring war on him), or was it cause everyone was ganging up on Ethan (who was champoning Wesleys efforts, which irritated Joe)? The game ended poorly with feeling getting hurt, so we had a talk after reading scriptures and family prayer. The talk continued with a full hour of everyone taking a turn saying what we all liked about each member of our family. Lily went first, and when we moved on she felt bad when we all started saying nice things about Sophi and Abi... We let it be her turn again but it wasn't enough. Joseph started to rub her back to make her feel better. That eventually ended up putting her to sleep.

As the conversation continued, the little girls keeled over one by one. There's Sophi in the doorway, Lily by Corey's feet, Natalie conked out by me.

It was late when we stopped, there were no hard feelings over the board game. We all like each other, good. It was a good talk though and I wish I had recorded the whole thing. I told the kids to try to write in their journals what they remember was said about them, cause there was just way too much said for me to document. But in a nutshell, we think our kids are awesome and are doing great things and are just getting started, we are excited to see what lies ahead for each of them.

So, even though we had daylight saving time end to give us an extra hour, we spent it talking and so were just as tired when we woke up Monday morning, drat!

Fall Errands

I was out running errands today. I had to pull over and take a picture of the beautiful orange trees and the bright red bushes under neath them that line the south side of 94th. I love them!

I keep feeling so distracted when I drive by all the beautiful trees, fall better end soon before I get in a car accident. And in case you didn't know, there are 53 days until Christmas...

Halloween is over, so let the commercialization of the holidays begin! I thought that was a little much, we don't need reminders like that. Poor Thanksgiving! 

Trick or Treat

We had three Supermans this Halloween. One Superbaby, and two Clark Kent. Owen has got the Superman fly pose down like a pro.

Joseph babysat Owen and passed out candy while I took Natalie and Sophi trick or treating down the street. Here's what our front door step looked like:

I went with Natalie and Sophi to about 6 houses and then left them with Mel as I ran home and got Owen and Joseph and Joe's friends and took them to a party they had going on. I piked up Natalie and Sophi on my way cause they were pretty slow and couldn't keep up with the rest of the group.

But these little toddlers... Halloween lives for these little souls. We put two different costumes on Sophi, but she didn't want to wear them, so she wasn't dressed up at all. Silly girl.

Natalie was wearing some Elsa pajamas. 

Natalie wouldn't put on a jacket, so that is why I grabbed her to come with me to take Joseph. She and Sophi were perfectly content though to have their little bag with 10 pieces of candy. Love it. Simple, low key, that's how I like Halloween to be.

I didn't get any pictures of the other kids. Hopefully our neighbors did, I'll post them later if they send me any.