Nathan is Six!!!

Quote of the day (on the phone with Grandma Suzie, who lives in Hawaii):
Nathan, "I opened presents, had some cake, you know, birthday stuff."

For six wonderful years, we have enjoyed Nathan. Last night, I was sorting through some old photos and I realized that Nathan has been sucking his thumb for a really long time. He has been sticking out his tongue when he's concentrating for a really long time. He's been affectionate and loving, especially with his baby sister, for a really long time. And he has been entertaining me and making me laugh for a really long time. I love this kid!!

Nathan's birth day, with Chris, Ammon, and Sarah

I didn't think you got a good look at him in that last photo. This one is when he was a couple of weeks old. Not a birthday at all, just a pretty little baby boy. 

1st birthday

2nd birthday. That's supposed to be Curious George on the cake, which remains a fitting image for Nathan. At this age, Nathan would squish up his eyes for every photo. It's pretty funny to me.

3rd birthday. I think that's meant to be Lightning McQueen.

4th birthday. Lightning McQueen and Mater. And the cutest smile ever!

5th birthday. That's a terrible Transformer, but an awesome little boy in stripedy pajamas!

And birthday #6. Um, that's meant to be Aang the last airbender, from the real Avatar. Sarah helped decorate the cake.

How To Get To Kalakazoo

Ammon won! He won 2nd place in the 3rd grade division of the local writing contest sponsored by PBS Kids. (The first place winners advanced to nationals.) Anyway, Ammon won! We went to the celebratory event today. I received a phone call a couple weeks ago from a lady at KUED (a local PBS station) telling me that Ammon had won, but she asked me not to tell Ammon until they announced it publicly. When we got to the party (event?) we immediately found Ammon's story. And then Ammon found out that only the winners got their stories displayed. How exciting! Later, they had the awards ceremony (or whatever they called it) and Ammon found out he won 2nd! He was so excited. He announced, "I TOTALLY ROCK!"

Ammon with his storyboard.

Ammon receiving his certificate, award bag (full of picture books, chapter books, activity books, a jumprope, popcorn, Crayola Twistables, and a WordGirl dvd with 8 episodes!!!!). He also received a hard-bound book, A is for Arches, directly from the author, Becky Hall. (You can see her in the photo.) There were 5 local children's authors present and each of the winners received a book from one of them.

The official photo of Ammon, with certificate, and Becky Hall. Check out those stunning Native American cheekbones on that kid. Boy, he's good-looking. Chris thinks his cheekbones are from my mom, making them Danish cheekbones, but that doesn't conjure up the same image in my head as "Native American cheekbones." Not to mention the subtle Psych reference.

There were several activities for the children and lots and lots of cookies. After the awards ceremony, a magician performed. As part of one trick, a kangaroo appeared. A baby kangaroo. This little fellah will grow to be about 6'1" and 190 pounds. Now I've seen lots of kangaroos, but this is the first one I've seen wearing a diaper. Or is it a Pull-up? Anyway, I had to take a photo.

All in all it was a great experience. If the contest was judged the same as last year, the judges included children's librarians, children's book authors, illustrators and visual artists, literary specialists, and others. So, that's pretty cool. Ammon's book will be posted online, but they haven't updated the website yet. I'll post the link when they do. And, his storyboard will be on display at Thanksgiving Point for the next few weeks. There were over 300 entries and 16 winners (1st-4th place in grades K-3rd). I'm so proud of him.

Oh, one more thing. The book. Ammon's book is called How To Get To Kalakazoo, by AmFoWo. Ammon used a pseudonym because he wrote the book in Seussian-type poetry. It's pretty clever. I love it. And I love him.

Oh, and another more thing. Sarah made Ammon a beautiful and artistic sign that says, "Ammon Woods rocks at books." She and Nathan raved all day about how cool their brother is and how proud they are of him. They didn't show any jealousy, just complete excitement over Ammon's success. I love them, too.

I love days like today. The only disappointment was that the episodes on the WordGirl dvd don't include the "May I Have a Word?" bit or the Captain Huggyface dance at the end.

Thanks for the tip!

Today, I was upstairs working on my computer and Nathan was downstairs watching PBS. He came running to me, very excited, and said, "MOM! Go to pbskids.org! There's stuff on there about how you can become a better mom!"

He even followed up later to make sure I had checked it out.

Bedtime Stories by Beth

(When I got home tonight, Chris and Beth were telling each other stories. I was privileged to hear Beth's.)

Once upon a time, there was a princess named Bethie. She went walking through the woods looking for her pink elephant. But her pink elephant was not there! Someone had taken it to the zoo!

So, Bethie went to the zoo and got her pink elephant out. But the gate was locked! Bethie had a key in her pocket. And she had a gun. She shot the guys.

And then Chris came. Bethie said, "Do you want to ride on my pink elephant?" And Chris said, "Sure." So he rode on her pink elephant. And Bethie was wearing Sarah's pink hula skirt. And she had a sparkly pink magic wand.

And then a lot of elephants came and they all rode back to Bethie's mommy's and daddy's house.

The end.

A day in the life of Beth...

Just a couple of things from Beth's day today.

I was in a desparate situation. Or I was lazy. Either way, I asked Beth if she would go downstairs and bring me back my purse. She said, "Sure." She was gone for some time...

And then she came back. With no purse. But wearing a backpack!

She said, "Mom, your purse is lost. So, I had to get my backpack!"

I asked what she had in her backpack (hoping she had my insurance card so I could call and make an appointment with the doctor). She said, "Well, let me show you."

She opened her backpack, taking out her sunglasses and cell phone. (It's a pretend phone.) I think she's got everything a girl needs right there.

Then she went outside to play. She really wanted a friend, but everyone was busy. Everyone, that is, except her 14-year-old cousin, Alyssa. Alyssa took care of her. They played outside for a while and then Beth came in and announced, "I don't feel like myself today."

I have never used that phrase and have no idea where she got it. I thought she didn't feel like herself because she felt like a princess. (She was being a princess, you see.) But she said that wasn't so. She just didn't feel like herself.

Then she decided to try (again) to play with Sarah. Sarah was being a queen; she was wearing a crown and everything. Sarah changed into a queenly attire and came up alone, so I asked, "Where's Beth?" Sarah told me she was just lying on the floor downstairs in her underwear.

Well, the obvious reason for that is that she couldn't decide what a princess should wear. I went downstairs to help her get through the difficult decision. I suggested dress after dress. Beth's response? "That dress doesn't make me dance!"

We finally found the perfect dress. The one that makes her dance. And dance she does.

During Family Home Evening, Sarah taught the lesson. She asked the question, "How do you feel when you feel the Holy Ghost?" and had us each answer individually. Beth said she felt happy. She followed up with, "How do you feel when the Holy Ghost is not with you?" and had us each answer individually. Without hesitation, Beth said, "Kinky."

I don't know what to say about that.

Then we played hide and seek, as per Beth's request. It was crazy fun. My favorite part? As soon as whomever was "it" said, "Ready or not, here I come," Beth would shout, "FIND ME!! I'm under the blanket. Hee hee!" And then the "it" person would pull off her blanket and Beth would sigh and groan, "GRRR!" with disappointment that she was found so easily.

And late at night, long after normal 3-year-olds are tucked in and sleeping, our insomniac Beth cuddled up to me, as if to go to sleep. She un-cuddled and said, "I just turned hungry." Midnight-snack of cream cheese and crackers? Absolutely. She jumped off my bed and (forgetting all of the sleeping siblings she was running by) said, "Get mark, get set, GO!" And raced (by herself) to the stairs. I stumbled sleepily after her. She didn't seem to notice how slowly I was moving, as evidenced by her joyful shout "TIE!!"

Chalk Art

We went to a chalk art festival. Most of the artists were amateur, but there were a couple of "real" artists. And then our kids got to have some fun with chalk. I mostly want to show some pictures.

The boys with some artwork based on How to Train a Dragon

This was my favorite...the artist is obviously not finished.

The girls with a pretty flower

My nephew is quite the artist!! (I helped him color the purple wing. I'm so amazing.)

Ammon with an "evil guy"

This is Sarah's dream job, I'm sure.

My nephew made creative use of the telephone pole!

My nephew with a cool castle!

Nathan was so proud of his drawing!

My niece loved the chalk...

Bethie's favorite part was coloring her hands blue. (Notice the little handprint to the left.)

My niece drew an ocean full of dolphins. It's not the best picture, but it was a pretty drawing.

My niece working on her creation

Sleeping Beauties

When I got home from yoga last night, this is what I found:

Awww...

And then, after talking to Chris for a little while, I went back in and found this:

At this point, I decided to put Bethie in her own bed. I'm not sure that was a good idea, considering how little sleep all six of us got after this. It wasn't the best night. I could describe it to you, in the hopes that the description would put me to sleep for the morning, but I won't because I'm not sure you want to fall asleep reading my blog.

I will just say this, after Beth decided she had tried as hard as humanly possible to get back to sleep (I believe it was about 4:00 a.m.), she asked to watch a movie on the computer. I said no. (That's right, I'm a tough mom.) I think it's a bad habit and plus, I was too tired to go to the effort to get her a movie. She threw a mini-fit and yelled and cried. Yelling and crying seems extra-loud and extra-emotional at 4:00 a.m. Chris said, "Why can't she just watch a movie?" I guess my principles are meaningless when exhaustion is a consideration. So, Chris let her watch Blues Clues on Netflix on the laptop, which is conveniently located on the bedside table next to my head.

I know I fell asleep at some point, but it was a pretty restless sleep, filled with vivid dreams. The only parts of my dream I remember include running with Steve (from Blues Clues) in his green-striped shirt to try to find all the clues to rescue Blue from the bad guys, who included Professor Snape. We looked in the auditorium (what auditorium?) for Blue and everyone held up blue Care Bears (Bedtime Bear, of course) and there was so much blue, we couldn't find Blue. It was like a Where's Waldo page. But we were still on the lookout for clues, and we were still on the run from Professor Snape. I ended up hiding behind a door near the women's restroom. I know this because women kept coming out of the restroom and giving me weird looks. I would signal them, "Shhh," and point to Professor Snape. Everyone seemed to understand that his presence was a good reason for me to hide. In the meantime, Steve (in his green striped shirt) was sitting in the little outdoor cafe with Professor Snape and his friend (also a bad guy). Steve was trying to explain to them the whole concept of finding clues and completing the game. I think it was Blue's birthday and everything.

There are a few other random details from the dream that I can't really explain because I don't know how they fit in the overall story.

Then when I woke up, I was surprised to hear that the Blues Clues episode that was actually playing on the laptop conveniently located near my head was NOT about finding Blue in a mass of blue Care Bears (Bedtime Bear, of course), escaping from Professor Snape, or even Blue's birthday. Ironically, it was about dreams. Apparently, (and this is what Steve was really saying on the episode--not part of my dream), Steve (in his green-striped shirt) teaches preschoolers that they can "do anything they want to do," including changing the scary parts of their dreams into something happy. I think he told someone named Sleeping Beauty that she could change a scary monster into a birthday cake. I'm confused.

I'm a little tired this morning.

Take me out to the ball game...

It's that time of year again!

Ammon swung a little prematurely...the pitch didn't quite reach the plate.

Ammon

Nathan building sand castles instead of watching the ball.

But when he got up to bat, he hit it!!

One good deed

As a family, we are listening to (and thoroughly enjoying) The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Currently, we are near the end of The Horse and His Boy. We heard this yesterday:

"He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one."

Isn't that wonderful? When we truly serve God, He trusts us to serve Him in harder and better ways. And this is one of the ways our Heavenly Father allows us to progress and grow.

I like it.

Well, that's one explanation...

Ammon told me this story. On Sunday, his primary teacher asked, "Why do you think God allowed Joseph to be sold as a slave into Egypt?"

Ammon offered this solid reasoning: "Just to make more scripture stories!"

(He wants me to include the disclaimer that he meant this as a joke.)

Happy birthday to me!

Tomorrow is my birthday. I like my birthday. I like any reason to have a party. Last night, I was telling Chris all about how excited I was for my birthday and all of my plans. He looked at me and said, "You do realize you're turning 36, don't you?" Yes, I do realize how old I am. But I figure I'll only get old when I stop enjoying my birthdays.

Last year, my sister-in-law, Laura, found out that my birthday coincides with Star Wars Day! Did you know there's such thing as a Star Wars Day? Neither did I. Why did they choose May 4th? Obviously, because someone knew it was my birthday and I am a huge fan! Or maybe because it's May The Fourth (be with you). Ha ha ha! Well, you know how I love a themed birthday party! (Maybe you don't know, but now you do.) Am I too old for a Yoda cake? I sure hope not. We celebrated early, so the cake was already made and eaten.

It's not too bad, right?

That's 36 happy candles!

I blew them out with one little puff! (There's something to be said for clumping all the candles together.)

The stray cat that is not staying

Looks like she's staying. Her name is Spots. Whoever had been feeding her isn't feeding her anymore. What are you gonna do?

Go, throw up...

That title is just a little quote from the outtakes of Pixar's Monsters, Inc. Mike Wazowski really meant to say, "Go, grow up," but he made a mistake, resulting in big laughs. I think it was planned so that they could animate some funny outtakes. Nothing gets by me.

Oh wait. I had a story to tell.

At church today, Beth told her daddy, "I'm going to grow down so I can be your baby again."

I have no funny closing remark.

The faith of a child

The other day I had a terrible headache. This is not uncommon. I took some medicine, but that didn't help. I knew the only way my headache would go away is if I took a little nap. Whilst I was resting, Sarah came in to tattle on someone. I told her I couldn't help her until after I got a little sleep. My head was going to split wide open. Sarah said okay and left the room so I could rest. She came back about 17 seconds later and said, "Mom, did you say a prayer?"

I hadn't. I followed Sarah's advice and my headache was gone within a matter of 10 minutes.

What the heck?

I know what you're thinking. You thought I had forgotten I had a blog. I've just been so tired. So tired. But I decided to post a few little things tonight. I got a little carried away. You should note that you should press "older posts" at the bottom of the page in order to read everything I've posted today. I'm sorry these posts are not clever or well-written or any of that. But I am so tired.

It's Sprrrriiiing!!!!!

Ignoring the fact that it has been snowing most of the week, I would like to take this opportunity to rejoice in spring.

Pictures by Sarah.

Does it have to have a label to determine age-appropriateness?

We were taking a lovely afternoon walk. The kids brought their bikes along. After a while, Bethie got tired of riding her bike and insisted on a turn in the wagon. Chris was carrying her big wheel, when for some reason I don't fully understand, he decided it would be funny if he tried to ride it.

So, now, Beth has a brand new bike. It's so little. It's a two-wheeler with training wheels. She loves it. I will take a picture of her on it someday when I think about it.

Ah, spring.

What's better than water colors in the sunshine? Really. What could be better? Maybe, finishing your painting and petting the cat. The stray cat, who is not staying.

Oh, Sarah

Sarah is not allowed to wear make-up, as she is only 7-years-old. But, she makes do with her washable markers. This is one of her many creations. She sometimes includes necklaces, earrings, eyeshadow, and who knows what in her creations.

Photos of Sarah and Bethie doing the dance move I mentioned in the previous blentry.

Abs of steel

At Sarah's dance class, they do an exercise that not only strengthens their stomachs, but looks beautiful and graceful when done appropriately. The girls will lean back slowly, "1-2-3-4" and then hold in that position, "1-2-3-4" and then slowly come back up, "1-2-3-4." It looks pretty hard.

Beth likes to watch dance and imitate it when she thinks no one is looking. This leaning back move is one of her favorite moves to imitate.

Last Thursday, Nathan came into the dance room because he was bored of reading and drawing in the other room. I said, "Go try this exercise. It will make your stomach strong."

He looked at me, baffled as to why a person would want a strong stomach, and said, "Strong enough to eat spaghetti?"

No, probably not.

Don't grow up too fast

If, by some sort of accident, Bethie receives a knife at her place setting, her little chin will quiver and she will say, "I'm too young for a knife!" If it isn't removed quickly, she will become even more emotional and tell me, "It will cut my cute little tongue!" Well, we can't have that.

Sarah's playdate

On Monday, Sarah wrote invitations for a playdate. She rolled them into a scroll and tied them up with bows. She announced to me that she was inviting people over for Saturday. I said, "Yeah, we'll see." Well, she did all the follow-through, phone calls, and planning. We had her party today. She got a few friends (by "friends," I mean cousins) to come. She planned a list of games...from musical chairs to limbo...and had treats. Everyone had a great time. It is fun to see Sarah in charge and enjoying herself.