"We May Not Have It All Together But Together We Have It All"

Carter'sConnor's Karley'sLauryn's
Brendan's- we know where he wants to be
Brent's- don't ask
Karissa and Kevin's
Kerianne and Ethan

Sorry about the grainy video below, I had to compress it down from 250 MB.

Better late then never right? Here are a few pics and a video of our fun in the snow.

So I am way behind in my posts!

This year was the first year (in 9 1/2 years of marriage) that I did some baking for Christmas. Ryan did help. He did an awesome job with the chocolate & butterscotch peanut clusters and dipped treats (he is much better and more creative then I when it comes to cooking).

Pumpkin chocolate chip, raspberry thumbprint, white chocolate peppermint pretzels, milk chocolate pretzel sticks, semisweet & butterscotch peanut clusters and chocolate chip peppermint bark

Evan is in the stage of deep thinking (for a 5 year old), like how did Jesus make the radio, computers and TV work. Or how other people were born before Jesus, and many other questions. His deep thoughts are usually exercised at dinner time. The other night (being a true boy and into good guys and bad guys) he asked,

"Mom why do good guys turn into bad guys?" Well, I said. "Sometimes good guys don't choose the right?" "But why do they not choose the right", he asked. "Because they don't listen to the holy ghost. The Holy Ghost helps us choose the right." I answered. "Ooohhh", he understood.

I truly hope he continues to understand.

A couple of Lucas favorite things at 11 months.

He also loves to play catch with any ball he can find. His version of catch is throwing it at you (watch out) and you tossing it back to land as close to him as possible.

About two months ago (I know I am behind in posting) Evan had a very bad day. One that I wanted to post so that when he has another bad day I can remind him that he got through it and can be a happy again.

Each morning is a draw as to whether Evan will have a good or bad morning which turns into a good or bad day.

Well this particular day seemed to start out okay, he even had his friend Blake get off the bus with him to eat lunch and play at our house for a bit. At lunch Evan said; "Mom, I went to the principles office." "What?" I asked. "I went to the principles office today, I don't know why and I cried" he said. I let him know that we would talk about later when Blake went home.

My son! Only a month and a half into his school career and he is already at the principles office. I am doomed.

While the boys were playing I called his teacher to find out what happened. She was in the middle of her PM class so she couldn't say much just that he did see the principle and that he consistently can't keep his hands to himself (which is not like Evan). Come to find out after probing Evan, emailing the teacher and the principle calling, we found that upon arriving at school Evan was standing in line with a neighbor boy who likes to play fight as boys do so Evan was following along. Well the para educator apparently told them to stop a couple times and then told the teacher when she arrived to take the class to the room. The principle was right near them so the teacher asked her to talk with the boys so that she could take the rest of the kids to the classroom. It was rainy and cold so the principle took the boys to the next closest classroom (apparently this is when Evan started crying, he knew he was in trouble)to let them know that play fighting was not okay at school....she gave them a little pep talk and took them to class.

Later that day Evan was resting (reading books) in our bed which he does almost daily for an hour and started playing with the grass around our fake tree. He came running out freaking out saying its in my ear, its in my ear, am I going to die. I got him to calm down to explain what happen (remember he already swallowed a quarter). He said he poked a piece of grass in his ear. I took a look and nothing was in there so I sent him back to bed. Once again he came out freaking out...I can't see its in my eye. Oh boy here we go again, I thought. I tried looking in his eye to see if anything was in there but couldn't because it was glued shut, you know how your eye gets when you look at the sun funky and you just can't open them. Just imagine wrestling with a 5 year old to open his eye while he is kicking and crying "I never want to be alive". I stopped right then sat him up and sternly but lovingly said, "Don't ever say that again, I love you and daddy loves you, don't ever say that." I asked him why he said it. Gasping for air trying to calm is cry he said, "because I don't want to have anymore bad days." I just had to sit there and hold him after that.

It took a while of struggling with him and a round of flushing what ever it was out with water to get him calm enough to open it and tell me what happened. When he went to lay down on the pillow a piece of the grass had poked his eye.

A 5 year olds bad day :)

This last Sunday in Sacrament one of the speakers shared one of my favorite stories.....

“Years ago there was a little one-room schoolhouse in the mountains of Virginia where the boys were so rough that no teacher had been able to handle them.
“A young, inexperienced teacher applied, and the old director scanned him and asked: ‘Young fellow, do you know that you are asking for an awful beating? Every teacher that we have had here for years has had to take one.’
“ ‘I will risk it,’ he replied.
“The first day of school came, and the teacher appeared for duty. One big fellow named Tom whispered: ‘I won’t need any help with this one. I can lick him myself.’
“The teacher said, ‘Good morning, boys, we have come to conduct school.’ They yelled and made fun at the top of their voices. ‘Now, I want a good school, but I confess that I do not know how unless you help me. Suppose we have a few rules. You tell me, and I will write them on the blackboard.’
“One fellow yelled, ‘No stealing!’ Another yelled, ‘On time.’ Finally, ten rules appeared on the blackboard.
“ ‘Now,’ said the teacher, ‘a law is not good unless there is a penalty attached. What shall we do with one who breaks the rules?’
“ ‘Beat him across the back ten times without his coat on,’ came the response from the class.
“ ‘That is pretty severe, boys. Are you sure that you are ready to stand by it?’ Another yelled, ‘I second the motion,’ and the teacher said, ‘All right, we will live by them! Class, come to order!’
“In a day or so, ‘Big Tom’ found that his lunch had been stolen. The thief was located—a little hungry fellow, about ten years old. ‘We have found the thief and he must be punished according to your rule—ten stripes across the back. Jim, come up here!’ the teacher said.
“The little fellow, trembling, came up slowly with a big coat fastened up to his neck and pleaded, ‘Teacher, you can lick me as hard as you like, but please, don’t take my coat off!’
“ ‘Take your coat off,’ the teacher said. ‘You helped make the rules!’
“ ‘Oh, teacher, don’t make me!’ He began to unbutton, and what did the teacher see? The boy had no shirt on, and revealed a bony little crippled body.
“ ‘How can I whip this child?’ he thought. ‘But I must, I must do something if I am to keep this school.’ Everything was quiet as death.
“ ‘How come you aren’t wearing a shirt, Jim?’
“He replied, ‘My father died and my mother is very poor. I have only one shirt and she is washing it today, and I wore my brother’s big coat to keep me warm.’
“The teacher, with rod in hand, hesitated. Just then ‘Big Tom’ jumped to his feet and said, ‘Teacher, if you don’t object, I will take Jim’s licking for him.’
“ ‘Very well, there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for another. Are you all agreed?’
“Off came Tom’s coat, and after five strokes the rod broke! The teacher bowed his head in his hands and thought, ‘How can I finish this awful task?’ Then he heard the class sobbing, and what did he see? Little Jim had reached up and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. ‘Tom, I’m sorry that I stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love you till I die for taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!’ ”

Last week during dinner Evan was having a conversation with Ryan, here's how it went....

Evan: I know whats on our tongues
Dad: What?
Evan: I forgot what they are called
Dad: What do they do?
Evan: Taste
Dad: So what are they called?
Evan: (eyes wide like the light bulb went off, he yelled) Taste Butts!!

I did jinx myself. Lucas is still waking up twice a night only now it is for a little longer of a stretch between times, 1:00am and 6:00am (it use to be 1:00am and 4:30am). I usually wake up feeling more tired than I did when I went to bed. Now I day dream about sleep.

10 Months and 24 days!!

Last night was the first night that Lucas slept through the night! It only took 10 months and 24 days (and Ryan wonders why I am always grumpy).

He slept from 9:30pm to 7:00am. When I woke up at 6:20am when the boys hopped into bed with me (Ryan was getting ready for work) I had Ryan go check on Lucas to make sure nothing was wrong.

It was strange to not wake up one or two time (usually two times) a night to feed him. I had to stop and think, maybe I did feed him and just didn't remember. Well, he actually did sleep through the night. Unfortunately Ryan and I didn't go to bed until 1:00am since my laptop died and Ryan was setting up another computer for me to work on.

Now that I type this I know I am jinxing myself and he will wake up again tonight!

Halloween day Evan's school class had a fall party and I volunteered to help out. It was a surprise to Evan since he kept asking if I would come to his school to help. I walked in and was able to watch him for a bit. It was fun to see his face when he saw me, he yelled out "I didn't know you were coming". It was a fun day, they painted paper pumpkins, played fall bingo, decorated cookies (the helper said Evan turned the sprinkles upside down and made a mountain on his cookie), listened to Halloween/fall stories, made spiderwebs (picture shown below), made paper bats and colored a scarecrow. I ended up some how helping with the busiest project, the paper bats so I didn't get to take more pictures.