Christmas

After Thanksgiving, it was definitely time to throw out the pumpkins the kids decorated {for Halloween}

And get ready for Christmas! We tried to have fun and meaningful Christmas experiences as a family throughout the month.

#1 decorate

Our first year with a village! Jon found a guy selling nine buildings for $50! It was a steal. Of course, he had to add the train :)

Our elf came to visit

We visited Santa at Bass Pro

And rode the merry go round.

Decorate ginger bread houses

Some intense time spent planning and executing the ward Christmas party. Glad that one is over!

We did a fun, Christmas symbol riddle and treasure hunt.

Made lots of Christmas cards and wrote Santa lists

(Benson)

We also did sibling gifts this year for the first time. We took the kids to the dollar store and had them each pick something for the other two. There was minimal drama so we'll call it success.

We also took homemade bread to three families in the ward that we thought needed Christmas cheer. The kids did great singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

And of course, we went to Bagwell Lights and got Andys.

Christmas was here before we knew it.

Thanksgiving

After having two {excellent}Thanksgiving dinners in Utah, we decided to be very non-conventional and have a lobster feast. Complete with a live lobster whom the kids named Fat Tail. Because we picked the lobster with the fattest tail. 

It was a new experience for us to prepare a live lobster. We saw one tutorial suggesting you cut the lobster in half while still alive and I am just way too squeamish for that. So boiling water it was. 

It was a chill day, and the kids were a bit disappointed by the holiday. Haha. I always felt the same about Thanksgiving. But, we did try to make it fun and meaningful. Complete with thankful feathers and pin the feather on the turkey.

Homeschool

We finally finished our anatomy unit. 

The last project I did was make this hand to show how the tendons work. Their are elastics on the back to make the fingers move back into place. It was a pretty cool little thing but the kids weren't as into as I had hoped.

I also made a muddy buddy recipe for Vanessa with pictures so she could do it entirely herself. She did really well with minimal help from me.

Vanessa is doing really well in homeschool. It has been a huge learning experience for both of us. She is a rock star at math and we have basically completed first grade math. She is doing well in reading but she doesn't enjoy it like I would have hoped. I am still trying to figure out how to instill a love of learning and reading. I read a book that talks about the Thomas Jefferson model of education. The core of it is teaching people to love learning and to educate themselves. I love the idea and premise of this. I feel like this is something that public schools lack entirely. They teach some kids to love exceling and some kids get lost in the shuffle, but rarely do they teach you to love learning. I feel like that is something I didn't really learn until I got into college but mostly now that I am done with school.

Vanessa is so easy to teach and really does quite well. She protests at times and definitely does not like being asked to do school "on the side." I have tried a few times to do school with her while we are out and it just doesn't happen. She knows that she can protest and not cooperate and what am I going to do about it? I've got three other kids with me to keep in line in public so she can get away with that.

I still constantly worry about whether or not she is getting everything she would be getting in public school plus some. This whole ordeal is only worth it to me if it is going to make her better for it in the end. I do feel like I can push her harder than she would be pushed in public school. I think she has a pleaser personality so she would work hard to make her teacher happy. But I think she could do much more than would be expected. But there is no way for the teacher to accommodate that. She can push back much more with me than I know she would with a teacher. S far, it hasn't been too bad though.

I would love to continue homeschool next year and include Brigham and Benson but they are a huge challenge for me. Benson is very smart but he is also a bit defiant. I feel like I would have to get after him a lot and really push hard for anything to get done. I would definitely have to work on incentives and motivation for him to cooperate with me.

Benson has been attending preschool and he really enjoys it. But it is definitely one big party and I don't feel like there is much focus on ABC-123. I feel like he should be getting more than he is at 5. I need to start working with him more but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Homeschool is definitely a process. For mom and student. I have no idea where we will be next year and what that will be like. It's kind of intimidating but also kind of exciting. I wish I had endless time, patience, and money to make their schooling experience more of what I dream of.

A Quick Utah Trip

Annabelle and I made a quick Utah trip. I went primarily to help my mom since she just had brain surgery. I was the last of all my sisters to get out and help but I did overlap with Carrie for almost 24 hours. It was fun to see her. She hadn't met Annabelle yet and the last time I saw her was November of 2013 (yes, that's almost two years). I did really well taking pictures of the Bradys, and then horrible taking pictures of my own family. Go figure. I was only with my parents for three full days. I spent the time doing laundry and making freezer meals and just chatting. Becky also talked me into a last minute hair cut with the lady that cuts her hair. I'm glad I did because my hair really did look awful. Haha. It was nice to see everyone, although I wish it were under better circumstances. The three left at home were definitely not happy that they couldn't come. They miss all their cousins. We are hoping to go out again in March. That feels like forever away now though.

Benson Turns 5

The morning started off with some fabulous birthday decorating. I had decorated the night before and bought some balloons but the kids wanted to add more. So we spent the morning adding more streamers. Benson's friend, Seth Gosselin, brought his a little Lego gift. It was very sweet of him. While Benson was at preschool, Vanessa helped me finish his cake and wrap a few more gifts. We picked Benson up from preschool and headed straight to Chuck-E-Cheezes. After, we had cake and opened presents. He was one spoiled boy this year.

Busiek

Pronounced Bee-U-sek. This place is a little bit of my Utah childhood right here in Missouri. It's about thirty minutes from our house and it's so much fun. I always loved playing in the rivers while camping in the Uintahs.

In Their Words II

August 31, 2015

Brig: "Dad, what are you going to dream about?"

"DAD! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DREAM ABOUT?"

Jon: "I don't know."

Brig: "Are you going to dream about Mommy? And Jesus? And how we can't poop everywhere?"

August 2015

Me: "How is your treat buddy?"

Benson: "Will you eat it if it's good?"

Me: " No, I was just asking."

Benson: "Oh. Then it's good."

Sept 6, 2015

Brigham is holding Rapunzel Barbie, stroking her hair.

"Mom, I dreamed about her last night. I kissed her because she is pretty."

September 18,2015

Benson: "Mom, do you want to know the name of my caterpillar? Its name was Fuzzball. Its last name was -----. Its third name was Mickey. And its other name was Mickey Mouse."

September 22, 2015
Benson: "Mom! I found a frog. I need you to catch it."
Me: "ugh. ok."
Benson: "It's over there Mom. It only has one eye but I love it anyway."
Me: "It only has ONE eye? Benson! Ew!"
Mom: "I know you're not a fan of catching frogs. But you can do it. Go get some gloves."

I told Jon about this little conversation and he told me they were talking about this the other day. How we still love animals or people, even if they aren't perfect; or maybe missing body parts. Vanessa even made up a story about a little boy named Benson, who had a whole bunch of animals that were missing body parts but he still loved them anyway. Because he is like Jesus.

Benson started preschool at the Nixa Early childhood Center. He loves preschool. I also make him do "circle time" at home with Brig and Vanessa. At first he told me, "Mom, I don't like homeschool. Preschool is a lot more fun." About a month later he said, "I guess homeschool is kind of fun." And then another month he said, "Mom, preschool is really fun. But we don't really learn anything."

November 2015

Benson and Brigham are comparing Halloween candy. Benson has a Lightning McQueen sucker that Brig really wants. Brig is begging and bribing. Benson finally sticks the thing in his mouth and says, "Too late. It has my slobber." Without missing a beat Brig says, "I like your slobber!!" With a huge smile.

November 2015 

Brigham: "Mom. I want to tell you a joke. Why was the cat in the road?"

Me: "I don't know. Why?"

Brigham: "to get hit by a car!"

Me: "That's so sad. Why did he want to do that?"

Brigham: "because he wants to died."

Me: "oh."

Brigham: "Mom, what if I bit your nose off?"

Me: "ouch. It would hurt. I would bleed and cry and look funny."

Brigham: "Mom. Let's count my teeth."

Me: "1...2...3.........."

"You have 10 on top and 10 on bottom!"

Brigham: "yay! We did it!"

November 17, 2015

We are talking about "being clean."

Jon: "How do we be clean?"

Vanessa: "Take a bath."

Jon: "Very good. How else?"

Vanessa: "Repent."

November 23, 2015

Brigham: "Dad, let's see what temperature you are." Brig holds a yardstick up to Jon.

Brigham: "woah! You're twenty feet tall Dad!"

November 24, 2015

Vanessa and Brig are playing that they are stray dogs ice skating.

Brigham: "oh know! The ice is cracking!"

Vanessa: "This ice doesn't crack."

Brigham: "Are you taping the ice?"

Vanessa: "uh... Yep. {I don't think that's what she was pretending to do but you can see the wheels turning of how to manipulate this situation} And now it won't crack again!"

December 26, 2015

Vanessa looking at her new panties from Christmas.

Vanessa: "Do we need to iron these dad?"

Jon: "No, they're probably fine. Are they wrinkly?"

Vanessa: "No, they're Elsa and Anna."