Christmas

I'm sitting here in Loa watching Braden and Roger put up Christmas lights. Remember the little spruce tree that Dave and Judy sent us for Dad's funeral? Braden was walking around it apparently checking it out for lights. Remember how it was nearly on its last Gasp when I brought it down to Cathy's house to see if she could save it? Well it is now well over Braden"s head and looking really beautiful. I don't know if he decided to put lights on it or not but the tree is really doing super well. Thanks, Cathy.

I still don't know what to do about Christmas--when and where this year--but, if I play it right I won't have to decorate at either place, right?, or take down, hmmm. :)

When I looked out next there was our old green tractor with Braden in the bucket stringing lights around the top of the tree and Roger driving around the tree positioning it so Braden could place the lights. That's when I had to go over and "help".

Iv'e decided that Mike is my most favorite child just so that you are all aware ... love mi i mean Mom

Loa goings on.

Friday, Thomas celebrated Veterinarians day!

Saturday we made distilled water for the hermit crabs.

Life is interesting.

Thomas just went home from his tutoring session. I've been going over his math papers and English papers with him to make sure he understands how to do everything. (Then if we have time we make cookies or something.)

He is really feeling good about things now. I said, "So, if you don't know what the teacher wants you to do, What do you do?" He says, "Take it home to Grandma! And if she doesn't know how she'll call Aunt Amy." He already knows you are a Math whiz, Amy.

He really has just come alive! Rides his bike over, 4 x's a recipe, and takes some home to the family. He is also getting 100 %s on spelling tests and math assignments.

Emma lost her teddy bear blankie--horrors! We have no idea where it went. So today she was over here and I have some teddy bear flannel so I whipped her up a "new teddy cush." She loves it--kept saying "thank you" the whole time I was making it. Then she said "It has a moose on it too." Well I said "Where?" cause I sure didn't see any. She pointed to the rocking horses and said "Moose."-- I said "My rocking moose up north?" "Yup", she says.

Then I said, "Do you like your new blanket? Aren't Grandma's silly? We don't go to the store and buy things--we make them!" "It's awesome!" she said, "My Daddy will like it."

So now she has a new blanket to go with her new house, her new bed (They got new bunkbeds for Emma and Silas), and her new Debbie. Her new security blanket is now associated with her new life.

I got pictures on my cell phone, but, siigh.

Progress

I believe we are making progress! Each kid has his own bike and can ride without training wheels except Emma whose bike is a glorified tricycle. She rides it well, though and all the others have scraped knees and band aids to prove their progress. They can be trusted to ride around the block and weather permitting to ride to school--2and 1/2 blocks. Wish I had pictures--sigh.

And Thomas has a 100% in spelling and a couple 97% in math assignments and is doing his reading Log on Goose bumps books.

Miriam is doing very well with piano lessons and Silas has the Alphabet and the sounds they make pretty well with few mistakes and can sound out Bob Book words a little now. He can count to 100 if he has the numbers to look at and is quite proud of himself. He still has reversals in penmanship, but Hey, He couldn't even write his name 6 weeks ago.

And this morning Cathy said they were all singing the songs in Primary and acting like normal kids. Hmmm. I wonder what that means exactly.

It's all kind of exciting really.

Grandkid antics in Loa

Interesting things are happening in Loa. I took the kids to the grocery store and Jasper comes running up to me and says "They're selling Free puppies. Can we have one?"

And it's been fair week and we've had Thank you lunches Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Sloppy joes, hotdogs and bar B qued beef. We rode the train around the block at two of them.

The parade came right by Mikes house so we set up chairs in the shade and the kids all collected more candy than at Halloween. (See Amy's blog for pictures) Then we went to the activities at the Park and Silas got lost--fortunately the car was parked at my house so he just returned to it. Meanwhile Mike had me watch the other kids while he and Debbie went to find Silas so we waited in the rock climbing line and the kids with me went rock climbing. ( See Amy's blog).

We thought the kids were settling down this morning until Silas began selling his collection of vulture feathers that he has collected in the field to Mike's clients. The kid made 5 bucks in 5 minutes. Oh well, you kids used to sell rocks to the neighbors.

We are having fun and school starts Thursday. We've been reviewing a few things. Silas is picking up on his abc's and the sounds they make. He will be in Kindergarten.

P.S. This is Amy adding pictures for her.

odds and ends

OK so now we are getting female blossoms with squashes and cucumbers behind the blossoms. I knew that the male blossoms usually come first but it made a fun blog. I was surprised that a few people didn't know the difference between male and female blossoms. Did you know that if your bees aren't too active that you can insure the squash and cucumbers will develop by pollinating them yourself?

The last couple of days I've been going to Jason and Zak's championship games in baseball. Those boys are GOOD! In Jason's game he was on first and a runner was on third. So Jason acts like he is going to steal second several times, then gets himself "caught" between first and second and the other teams complete attention on him and the runner on third steals home. by the time the other team notices and reacts to the runner stealing home he's in and Jason advances to second. He has connived to get a runner in and had fun doing it.

He is also a great short stop. He dances around and keeps kids from stealing 3rd by trying to tag them out when they try to get back to second. The other team members are good but I'm having fun watching Jason.

Then Zak's game was just as entertaining. He caught a ball in right field with his mitt on the ground when the ball fell in it. And he can also hit that ball when he is batting. It is fun to see how much both boys know about playing baseball. I'm sure Grandpa is sitting on a cloud cheering them on.

So if you can't find me home call David or Erin's Cell phones and see if there is an old Grandma with a floppy hat and a bottle of ice water watching baseball games with them.

Sorry. no pictures. I get too excited to take any even if I do remember to take my cell phone.

Boy Mom and my garden

I've been in Loa so much that Boy Mom did my Garden here. She worked up the soil really deep and pulled out weeds and root clumps and rocks. She bought beautiful plants -summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. and the garden looks beautiful--just like her yard. Today I went out to have a closer look. There are blossoms on the squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes etc and, guess what?--they are all male blossoms!! I guess I should have thought of that--Boy Mom, Boy blossoms . :(

Pies and Anniversary Surprise

Happy Anniversary Grandma!!

Amber taught Mike and Hayley how to bake pies from scratch

Mike's First Pie on his own

Hayley and Amber

Professional Pie Makers

Apple and Pumpkin.......Yummy!!

July 4th Pool Party!!

Food Prep with Mike and Hayley shucking the corn

Fried Chicken, baked beans, fruit, salads, chips, and goodies

Hayley, Amber, and Tyler peeking around

Brooklyn

Rob, Ben, William, and James

Amber and Rachel

Naomi and Kait playing on the floating bed

Next years attendees ;)

Everyone playing Silence

Fish out of Water!!

Matt, Karen, Symarah, and Ivan stopped by for a little

Jump Rope, James Family style

Amy's Antics

Hayley and Grandma

Josh holding Annie and James

Fireworks in the Rain

Happy 4th of July 2011

The "GRAND" Finale ;)

sprinkler fun

Cathy and her family planted potatoes and zuchini and stuff here at my garden area today so when I got home from Mikes, they were moving a sprinkler line to water it all. I went outside a minute ago and saw that the end sprinkler by the grass was clogged. I tried sticking something in it to unclog it but it didn't work.

I saw Braden and Caib coming back from chores somewhere on the 4 wheeler so I waved and motioned for them to come on over. They did--Caib was driving so Braden jumped off and was trying to cut a piece of wire off the fence to clean the head when Caib remembered that there was one on the back of the 4 wheeler.
He grabbed it and unclogged the head while Braden was still cutting a piece of wire off the fence. When Braden turned around Caib had the sprinkler working and was sitting waiting on the 4 wheeler. Braden ran back over to the 4 wheeler laughing sheepishly.

By the time he got on, the sprinkler came around and gave them both a surprise soaking.

Then they really laughed. Ahh, Farm life.

dyslexia with a sense of humor

Mike came in , sat down and started making return calls on his cell phone. Thomas said, "Daddy there's a warning label on your shoes. What is dangerous about your shoes?"

Mike found the yellow triangle and couldn't see any warning. "Maybe it's just part of the logo", he guessed. So we started guessing what they might be warning him about, you know--put your shoes on your feet--don't wear your shoes to bed, etc.

Then Thomas said, "No, Daddy. It's a warning to the fish--Look out you might get caught."

Thomas can definitely see both sides of an issue.

Mike gave Thomas a high five.

Grandma at Loa

I'm surviving, I think. We are making some progress, I think. The kids don't say "I don't like" as much--Jasper says, "I haven't 'required' a taste for whatever yet." I guess it might require you to acquire a taste for something. They are recognizing that they now do like some things that they formerly didn't like.

I now have three phone numbers that are driving me crazy. I probably cannot be reached at any of them. There's my cell phone #633 5298 which I don't answer in the car especially in construction zones; my Loa house phone 435 836 2003 that I don't answer when I'm not there and Mike's home phone--same as his which I get if one of the kids doesn't get it first when I'm there. I'm getting computer and email when someone comes down to set it up--hopefully exactly as it is in Orem or I won't remember how to use either one. With all these phones I can't remember how to use the one in Orem soooo. good luck with contacting me. You may still have to call Cathy.

Jenny says I'm becoming nerdified or was it geekified and is there a subtle difference I'm missing?

Like I said, I'm surviving, I think.

School Art Night

Miriam's Copper Tooling and Mineral Picture

Thomas' Painting

Thomas' Poster showing he likes to cook, fish with dad, and a fun day painting the shop.

Jasper's Alphabet Painting

Thomas, Silas, and Jasper doing Arts and Crafts at the school

Attempting to catch lizards at "Big Rocks"

Silas exploring a small cave

Miriam and Thomas scouting out lizards

Thomas

Emma and Silas

Thomas and Jasper climbing the rocks


All these pictures were taken by me with my new camera phone. Jenny says I'm becoming "nerdified"

Loa

This is "Little One" the other pictures didn't turn out. Check back later for more pictures

Well, I'm back from Loa again. This time I took care of Dogie lambs for Cathy while they were out of town overnight. She has 4 of them--I named them, Blackie, Fuzzy face, Little one and Dirty one. Blackie kept butting the bottle out of my hand and the other lambs mouths. Little one and Dirty one would eat about half their portion so quickly that they began to sneeze and took an hour or so before they could finish. It was fun watching their little personalities. Then I spent time helping Mike with his little dogies. When I talked to him this morning he said J was throwing rocks at a wasps nest and thankfully missed, but one rock came back down and hit S on the head and Mike had to apply first aid to the resulting wounds. Much like the Dogie Lambs. Funny how we all have to learn by what we experience. And funny how we sometimes get hurt by participating in someone else's experiences. Ahh Life!

RipStik'n Grandma

Miah teaching Grandma how to ride a RipStik. He says, "I'm not paying the hospital bill, but I'll help you."

Missionary Work

It has come to my attention that some of My Grand kids don't know that I served a mission as a young 21 year old. This is a call for a poll of Grand kids to see how many know that and to possibly then give a mission report for their benefit. Some of you kids may not know much about Daddy's and my missions either. Let me know what you find out from your kids.
And Thank you, Cathy, for the missionary board for Christmas. It's fun for everyone to see where everyone went.

He's here!

James (long, un-pronounceable, Hawaiian name) Chung-hoon was born February 14th. He weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and was 20 inches long.

Today has been an interesting day!!! I guess it began last night. I've turned Jenny's room into a quilt tying room and we've been tying quilts for a "big boy" bed for William and a matching quilt for the crib for the new baby which is also a boy. The twin size quilt is done and I was trying to finish up tying the baby quilt and I needed to go to the bathroom. I had 3 more stitches left when I reached too far and knocked the quilt off one stand. In trying to put it back on I tipped over another stand and in trying to fix that I tipped over the other two stands. I managed to get to the bathroom without making too many more problems, then had to return to the quilt and do the last three stitches. I did get it finished.

Then today, I got back from my second trip to the MTC and Mary Ann came rushing in to get a Lube Doc coupon for Jenny who was getting her car inspected for re-licensing and wanted the discount. For some reason my printer wouldn't print it off so I went into the kitchen to see if there was one on the calendar on the fridge. While I was looking I heard something go pop in the wall and could hear water running. I went downstairs and sure enough, water was running down the door in the quilt room. I threw all the extra towels on the floor making a channel to the drain and removed the old socks that block it, then went and called Johnny who happened to be at home and he hurried over and turned off the water at the street. We first blamed Daddy's repair job from broken pipes back when we went to Alaska but after cutting a hole in the ceiling, that repair was still working beautifully. We cut a hole in the wall by the kitchen stove and the cap off that pipe area that we put on when we redid the kitchen had broken in half. Johnny put a temporary cap on it and will get one tomorrow that won't break but I now have two holes that need repair in the basement and kitchen. Can you believe how much worse it could have been if I hadn't been right there?

Oh, then the coupon for Lube Doc printed right off. Well that's life.