Fun-filled days

I had to start off Thursday morning teaching swim lessons. Since James and Papa were up till at LEAST midnight the night before, reading Harry Potter, Jeanne offered to keep the kids home and watch them, since they were all sleeping in late that day. So, off I went to the pool...... in silence. I actually called everyone I could think of (Todd said it was because I was lonely), and at one point told one of my friends... listen... here that? It's nothing!


Then, of course, as I was swimming, there was a baby who sucked the same 2 fingers that Alex sucks, in the exact same way, which is odd becaue they are backwards. And it made me SOOOO miss Alex! So, although it was a wonderful quiet time, I was ready to see my boys again! Oh how I love them... and all their craziness and excitement they bring to my life!


Well, after swimming, it was nothing but THICK fog in Corvallis, but a mix of clouds and sun in Adair. So, I thought maybe a walk along the Old Growth Trail up on Lewisburg Saddle would be a good pasttime. Well, I didn't expect the dark cloud that loomed over the mountain! Although it never really rained, it started spitting on us about halfway through our walk. Thankfully, we all had coats on, and enjoyed ourselves irregardless. Even little Glenn, who was asking if we were to the car yet when we were about 500 feet from the car, said as we approached the car, "That was a fun walk, mama, I hope we can come do it again!" But James kept remembering when we did school along this trail a few times, and kept asking if we could stop and sit down and do school again. Obviously we did school when it was nice here! Grandma D finally asked him what his bum would feel like if he sat down on the wet ground. With a saddened reply, he said "Wet." That was all that needed to be said. But I assured him that when it was nice out again, we would find a reason to have school out there again. Last time we were learning about the pioneers, and went on a walk that lasted forever, because I missed the turn to the Old Growth Trail! It was a fantastic lesson on the difficulties of pioneer trecking!

The following day, Todd got off work early, and we headed up to Portland. First we stopped off at the OMSI to see their new dinosaur exhibit. Although we could have spent more time there, the kids LOVED it! Alex especially loved the clearing of the fossil bones. Go Alex Go! Jeanne meanered around, while the rest of us went to the IMAX. Alex has been here before, but something set him off this time, and he decided that he did not want to see the special effects that they do in the beginning to make you enjoy the experience of being inside a large dome!

I finally took him up to the top, and by this time, they had stopped with the cool Grand Canyon preview, and moved onto the world of fish, as we watched a movie about the coral reefs. Alex brightened up and pointed to all the fish he could find, and there were lots! So, the boys had a great time sitting with Papa, and Alex and I had a great time sitting at the top, watching the fish, but really being able to see that we were in a dome, and not literally surrounded by everything. Cause when you're at the top, you can see the limitations of the screen, and know that you're just in a movie theater. When you're down below, and in the thick of it, you can really feel like you're a part of the show.

After this, we went over to IKEA. What an experience! It took us a while to get over there with traffic, and it seemed like every time we got close, we took a road that took us further away again! But we FINALLY made it, and we all had a fabulous time! We ate dinner at the marketplace, and I really was happy with the prices! Not gouged like I had expected. The kids ate well (when do they not!), and off we went to look around at everything! What a site to see! It gave us wonderful ideas, and we look forwarding to using them! As I told one friend, for a pregnant lady who is already nesting, my wheels were turning at this place... at warp speed! Well, when we finally got home around 11ish, Todd and James ran off to finish Harry Potter! The rest of us skiddaddled to bed! Everyone slept in the next morning! Life was bliss!

Then in the afternoon we headed over to the Adair Historic Building they renovated to become a useful building in the community... its use is to be determined. But it used to be a bar, and it burned badly, so the owners left, and the City of Adair renovated it, and it looks beautiful! It used to be an old fire station back when Camp Adair was a old military base. It was a wonderful open house!

Well, I should get ready for the day, and I think I've rambled on enough! We're having a great time, and look forward to the wonderful weather ahead of us this week! Have a good one!

The Eclipse

I thought for sure we weren't going to be able to see the beautiful eclipse, when I woke up and went throughout the morning, in nothing but a dismal layer of fog and clouds. But believe it or not, the fog burned off, the clouds moved away, and we had a perfectly clear afternoon, and evening! We went for a wonderfully sunny walk after Alex refused to nap. It was at least 55, and if it wasn't for the small cloud layer over the Cascades, prohibiting us from viewing the spectacular mountains, it was a perfect day!

Then, that evening, as we stepped out of karate, we saw the shadow start to creep over the moon. By 7-ish, it was totally eclipsed, and it was amazing. Just a beautiful redish hue, and it was really neat still being able to see the Sea of Tranquility, etc. Although this picture does not do the moon justice, and you'll be able to see spectacular pictures over the internet, soon enough, I went ahead and included this one. The boys loved it! We tried to start a fire, but our wood was just too wet. So, we had a small paper fire, and hung out outside for a little while. Then came in to enjoy Grandma D's gourmet hot cocoa, and from then on just took peeks every 15 minutes to check the status. It was a wonderful evening, but a busy day! We certainly didn't have any problems falling asleep last night! Although Todd and James still stayed up until the wee hours of the night, reading you know what. They're almost done, though!

Grandma D is here, and she brought with her some goodies! The first hit, was obviously these pirate patches. They all were running around, informing us how pirates flip up their patch when they say "Huh??!!" and they all gave us their best grrrrring noise they could! And you can see James with his Ninja knife, also!

Alex's favorite part of this visit so far, was the shoes that Grandma D brought from MawMaw. He LOVED them, and would NOT take them off. He got around pretty well, in them, though! And I thought this picture was funny, too, because Alex is carrying around the bag of craisins. This child can eat, and we were all laughing because he had a large snack before dinner, then ate dinner, and then went to the cabinet to find more food... craisins and raisins.

The other picture is of the mannicans (sp?) that Grandma D brought. James has had so much fun manipulating them to do karate moves. Here they are with one doing a front leg front kick, and the other doing a back let round kick! Quite funny! He went and got the camera himself, so he could remember his creation!

And this other picture is of James and Glenn learning the phonogram "ue" which makes a long 'u' sound. Well, I went upstairs to check on Alex, who was refusing to take a nap, and told Glenn to make words with the letters. I came down to this word... "kuet" and Glenn was chanting, "Alex is Kuet, Alex is Kuet", and in case you don't get it phonetically, the word is 'cute.' Thought that was kuet :-)

Well, today's the day that we pick up Grandma D! The boys are VERY excited. I just wanted to share a couple of stories before we head out...

First off, I wanted to thank those who have made comments on the website. I worried that people would stop looking at it, and it would only be for my own benefit, but hearing quick replies keep me motivated to keep going!

Next, Glenn was cuddling with me the other morning, and was asking why Grandma D sent a package to us. (She sent a package about a week ago, and the kids hold it every day, waiting for Grandma D to open it with them!). I told him that the package was really heavy, and she didn't want to have to pack the package in her suitcase! Glenn said, "Well, what she should have done was tie a rope around the package, and then drag it behind her..."

We were eating sushi last night, and most everything was made with imitation crab. Well, as you know, James and Papa have been reading the Harry Potter series... and James was talking to Glenn, and pointed to 2 different types of sushi, and told Glenn, "Hey, Glenn. That one's Crab, and that other one's Goyle." Then Glenn chipped in, and told James later, "And this other kind is Malfoy." It was cute. And Todd and I enjoyed being the innocent bystanders.

The kids and I were driving home, and James said that one time he remembers that the kids and Papa, and Grandma and Grandpa D were driving in the Subaru. And Papa was driving, Grandpa D was sitting in the passenger seat, and Grandma D was sitting in the middle in the front... (the Subaru is a stick shift!) I said, "Oh Really?" And he stopped, and thought for a second, and then said, "Or, maybe that was just a dream?" Yep, James, I'm sure it was. I can't imagine Grandma D ever agreeing to sit in the front middle of our Subaru! It was funny.

Well, that's about it for today. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I'm bummed that the rain came back just in time for Grandma D to come.... but oh well! We'll make the best of it!

Take care!

Alex... trying to do karate, but making us laugh instead

I thought the first video was kinda fun... so as long as you guys can receive this alright, I thought I'd send my first attempt at getting Alex to show me his karate. He was having more fun making me laugh!

Let's try a video to wet the appetite...

Here's a little video clip of Alex doing his karate that he's learned from James. He's gearing up and ready to go to karate... only 4.5 more years to go!

End of the weekend already???

Hope everyone had a great week! On Tuesday Todd and I celebrated Valentine's Day by getting a babysitter, and heading out to dinner and then to a dance class. Although Todd's favorite thing is definitely NOT dancing, I like to think he had a great time learning the Salsa! We enjoyed spending time together, nonetheless! And the kids had a fantastic time with their boy babysitter, who loves to just play with the kids, especially Lego Star Wars.

Valentine's Evening, we then just spent all together as a family. It was wonderful. The boys love nothing more, than spending all night with their Papa. And James, especially, since that means they get to read into the wee hours of the night. James is JUST like Todd, and would love nothing more than to stay up till midnight (if not later!) reading Harry Potter! And the fact they they are already 1/4 of the way through the last book, and they started maybe 6 weeks ago, gives you the idea of how much they read together every night! It's coming to a bittersweet end, though. The series is almost done! They so want to finish it, yet will be sad when that series is over!

This week we learned about Sumeria. Since we've been talking about Egypt for a little while, I was refreshing their memory about the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia again. I should have known better! James remembered exactly what Mesopotamia meant, where it was located, and was starting to tell me the rivers that border Mesopotamia, "And the 2 rivers are the Tigris..." and without skipping a beat, little Glenn chimes in with all the muster from a 4-year old, and says "And the Euphrates River!" And to here his cute voice say Euphrates, made me laugh even louder.

Never underestimate what your children can learn! Especially when they don't seem to be paying attention!

So, yesterday we finished off our section on King Sargon and his military dictatorship over the Akkadian Empire, by making name-plate stamps. Many people couldn't write, so they made up images to represent their name. James made a Lion and a tiger fighting, and Glenn made a Lion fighting a Dinosaur for his name. Then they made stamps out of their pictures with clay. And once those dried, we stamped them into wet clay and made necklace charms.

Other than that, we're gearing up for Grandma D coming to visit in only 2 days! The boys are SOOOO excited! We've got her room all ready... now we just need to make sure her bathroom is in order! Since the boys clean that bathroom, I think I'll give it a once over before she comes :-) Tomorrow holds a busy day, but hopefully getting everything off our plate, so we just enjoy our company!

Have a wonderful week!

NASA TV

Todd's Dad called to let us know yesterday about NASA TV, and we've been watching it ever since! I just wanted to let you guys know about it, in case you were interested. This morning we watched their space walk, and we just finished watching the capture of Columbus to the ISS. Columbus is a new laboratory for the ISS. It truly is fascinating! So tune in to: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Have fun!

Hope you had a good weekend!

For Christmas my parents sent this building set, and the kids LOVE it! They've used it to build a sled for their stuffed dogs to pull around, and here they've built a car for the stuffed animals to drive. Good thing it doesn't go by itself! The kids LOVE building and pushing, and tearing all over the house with it! So, thought I'd share that picture.

Also, with the Iditarod coming up, they have a Mail Iditarod Project where any group of students can put together some sort of project to be sent with the mushers on their sled in honor of the trail being a traditional mail route. So, of you get the mail sent in time for the race, they divvy up the mail (plus lots of mail from paying sponsors) equally among the mushers, and they all have to carry it the entire way to Nome.
If they scratch beforehand, the mail will still get flown to Nome. But they'll let us know which musher has our mail, so we can follow him throughout the race. Anyway, we had some friends over to help make our picture to send. My friend's an artist, and taught the kids the difference between juxtaposition and collage. So, the kids make a juxtaposition picture with a watercolor background, and attached paper dogs. They all did a fantastic job, and hopefully it'll get returned to us with our musher's signature, along with various other signatures.

Anyway, have a wonderful day everyone!

Egyptian Pyramids

Here are our latest creations... the boys made short autobiographies of themselves to decorate the inside of their tombs. Since the pharoahs were buried with their current possessions they could use in their afterlife, the boys decided to describe their favorite things in their lives that they would want to take with them. Here are some of their answers...


James:
Favorite Movie: Star Wars
Favorite Book: Harry Potter Series
Collections: loves to collect beautiful stones
Hobbies: Model cars and airplanes
Favorite Sports: Karate and Baseball
Favorite Food: Ramen
Favorite thing to play: Stuffed Animals


Then James made his brothers the God of the Sun (Alex), and God of the Sky (Glenn) In the first picture, you'll have to note, that James is showing Glenn what someone looked like if they were the God of the Sun... he said they have to wear a sun on top of their head with 2 horns sticking out the side. James of course made himself Horus (his favorite ancient god!), the God of the Sky as well. And Mama is the White Crown, and Papa the Red Crown. (Note: The white crown won over the red crown!)


If you notice, James made SURE to add a burial chamber to enter! (Small gray door!)
Glenn on the other hand, didn't want to write on the sheet of paper, he wanted to write himself... of course. So, the top line is "S" (This) "is" (IS) "R" (Are) "FULY" (Family). And below it is "SES" (These) "UR" (Are) "BFL" (Beautiful) "STON" (Stones). I thought he did pretty well phenetically. I laughed that These, was Ses, cause when he says "These" it actually sounds like "SES" but I didn't realize that he never knew it started with a TH sound!

Anyway, we had a good time... oh and I almost forgot. Glenn drew LOTS of gold money in his Pyramid, and James taped a penny inside his. They needed to make sure they had gold like the Pharoah's!

Today we're heading up to Dallas to visit a friend with boys our age. Should be fun, and I'm sure rowdy! Have a great day everyone!

Love, Us

Pharoah Jamesglenn

Alright, so we'll try this layout of pictures and see how it goes. James' favorite Ancient God is Horus, the God of the sky. The first picture is of a mask he made so he can pretend to rule the sky whenever he wants. And in front of both boys is our deceased Teddy Bear, Pharoah Jamesglenn. Glenn made up that name. In picture #1 they have cut open Jamesglenn and pulled out his organs (including the brain) to begin the mummification process. They even put the important organs into canopic jars and labeled them... funny enough the Egyptians didn't know what the brain was for, so they threw that away figuring they didn't need it in the afterlife.
The boys added salt and spices to his body to help preserve him! And since we didn't want to wait 40 days, we went ahead and started to put grass back inside of him. But that was a little bit too laborious, so we ended up stuffing him up with toilet paper. And we kept adding spices and perfume, so he wouldn't smell stinky (as Glenn says).
In picture 2 you can see James adding spices, and picture 3 Glenn is stuffing Pharoah Jamesglenn while James is weighing the heart behind him to see if this Pharoah has had a good life. With a name like Jamesglenn, he must have had a fantastic life! :-) The last picture is of our final mummy with a mask on its face that James drew. The canopic jars are by his side, and the boys even made amulets, little workers, and a boat to help the mummy in his next life. We put him in a mummy coffin, but didn't have a stone sarcophogus... maybe next time :-) It was a great activity! The boys had a lot of fun, and now our mummy is on display on our half-wall in its mummy case which is highly adorned with beautiful pictures, and hieroglyphs!

So, we'll see how this layout looks when I'm done. I'm trying to get the writing to match up with the pictures!

Ok. So, a couple of funny things. James and I were looking at a book about Ancient Egypt last night as we were going to bed. I was showing him how the Mediterranean Sea is actually a huge sea, and goes all the way up to Europe. And I asked him if he knew how I knew it was Europe? He said no. So, I put my hand around Italy, and said, see this piece of land right here? I know this is Italy because it is shaped like a boot. Do you see that James? He said, with a curt laugh, "Ha. They shouldn't have called it Italy, they should have called it Bootily, cause it doesn't look like an I."

Also, yesterday I was talking to my parents about politics... which I enjoy discussing! Anyway, I was telling my parents how I wish that Ohama was a little older... he just seems a little young, and I wish he had a few more years before he becamse president... then James came over and said, "If he was older, he'd be wiser!" That's my philosopher!

We're finally getting over our stomach flu! Todd woke up yesterday morning feeling like he was going to throw up, but never did (thankfully because he had a huge day at work where is was present with judges, lawyers, etc!). Although he still doesn't feel well, he does feel a little better this morning than yesterday morning. So, now that all the sheets are washed, laundry done, counters bleached, we're ready to be healthy again.... for a loooooooong time!

Take care everyone! Love, US

Alex LOVES shoes

Looks like the girl votes are slightly outnumbering the boy votes... I can't believe it's another 3.5 months until this baby comes. I feel so large already!

Well, here's a picture with Alex wearing James' Luke Skywalker boots. Alex LOVES wearing these boots... even though he constantly trips over their clunkiness! Todd took Alex off the stairs today cause he was climbing the stairs in these boots, and was afraid Alex would fall. Alex didn't like that very much!

James seemed to be feeling better last night with a few sips of pop and a few bites of soup without throwing up... yeah, we're out of the woods. Well, he sipped on some pop this morning, and as James put it, "It was like the little baby in Shrek 3 who threw up all over." Thankfully the clear pop was the only thing in his stomach at the time! Anyway, he seems to have perked up since then, so we're still hoping that we're at the end for him!

Today is a quiet day. We just finished watching President Hinckley's funeral. It was such a beautiful service, for an amazing man who did so many great things for people in general in the world, and for our church. He will be missed, but also welcomed by those already passed on, especially his loving wife!

Have a wonderful day everyone! And may you all be healthy and happy!

One last post for today...

Well, the snow is gone at our house now. And I'm sure it's gone for the winter. Although the roads around us are still not convinced of that! Todd was supposed to go with the scouts on a snowshoe campout this weekend, and the 2 passes needed to get to where they want to go, are closed due to avalanches! And just found out that one of the highways over to the coast down by Eugene just closed due to a landslide! Yikes! It's been a crazy winter here! Well, have a wonderful weekend! We'll be hunkering down getting our kids healthy! We haven't been sick all winter yet, so I guess it's about time! Let me know what you think of the blog!

Love,
Sarah

Multiple Pictures Again... ancient writings

I think I like this layout for multiple pictures better.... here the boys are learning about the different types of ancient writing. We learned about hieroglyphs, and wrote out some hieroglyphs, but didn't try chiseling it out of stone! We left that for the pictures. But the kids could imagine how hard that would be at least! And then we moved to cuneiform writing, and the kids LOVED writing their names in clay! We made little door hangers. The writing was pretty much triangles and lines, and Glenn could do that much easier than the hieroglyphs! So, he actually did his by himself! He loved that! And the last thing we did was make paper, representing the papyrus paper. Although it wasn't made the same as papyrus, the boys had a great time shredding newspaper and making the messy pulp! And they really enjoyed seeing the final results of finished paper! They were amazed! Now, what to do with the paper? :-) Then we were going to do an experiment of putting pieces of each outside and seeing the effects of weather on the differents styles or writiing, to nail into their minds how the stone and clay lasted the longest than the papyrus which fell apart over the years... making it more difficult for historians to read about that time in history... well James, without skipping a beat, told me that we didn't really need to do that. Because we have rocks outside already in our yard, and "I've left a paper airplane outside before, and I know that the rocks are still there, and my airplane isn't!" So, that ended that topic of conversation! We needed to move on anyways! So, it worked out well!

Multiple Picture test... Egypt

All right... here's the test to see how multiple pictures work. I don't quite like the layout, so I'll have to see if I can work on that.

This is James learning about ancient Egypt when the White crown (upper Egypt) overtook the Red Crown (lower Egypt), and unified Egypt while taking control of the all so powerful Nile! King Narmer was then exalted to a Pharoah! And wore both crowns together - hence James is wearing both.

Then we recreated the Nile River, and actually grew some lettuce seeds! The most fun they have is flooding the Nile every week!

Iditarod Time

It's Iditarod time again! My kids LOVE learning about the Iditarod, and this year, they pulled out all their sled dog gear in full force! The race isn't until March 1st, but we start early, and do a little snippet once a week. They started the beginning of January by making their map Alaska and tracing the trail and checkpoints while drawing rivers and mountains. Good map work! They learned about relief maps, legends, and all around just had a great time learning. Of course, the highlight came afterwards, when they got to make another relief map out of cookie dough, using chocolate chips as mountains, gumdrops with flags sticking out as checkpoints, indentations for valleys... and we didn't do rivers... we'll have to save that one for next year! Anyway, our whole family enjoyed these creations... although I was sick afterwards when I realized that I didn't get any pictures of their cookies! I'll have to implant that in my brain for next year!

Now, we've chosen mushers to follow, and James is writing letters to them. Great writing lesson! Glenn and James have each chosen one rookie and one veteran to follow. And I chose Gary Paulson and Rachael Scdoris, since we've read their books last year, "Winterdance" and "No End in Sight." "Winterdance" is quite entertaining to read with great stories, even if it isn't written in the best English, and needed a little editing for the little ones! But truly fantastic stories! And "No End in Sight" truly is remarkable... can you imagine running in the toughest sled dog race being legally blind???? We're all excited that they are running this year! Right now we're reading "Yukon Quest" which is about the Yukon Sled Dog Race. It's good so far... we'll let you know how it finishes up.

As you can see from the picture, the boys most favorite thing to do after our lessons, is to harness up all of our stuffed dogs, make a sled out of a blanket, add their sleeping bags to their sleds, add a little stuffing to look like snow, pull on their snow boots, heavy jackets, and goggles, and MUSH!

In fact, last Sunday Glenn had to give a talk about being a Child of God, and knowing that God has a plan for me. Well, he related what he's learned about the Iditarod race, and how each of the mushers has a map they need to follow to get to Nome, and related it to the map we have of the Plan of Happiness that our Heavenly Father has given to us. And then paralleled how we all have mountains to go over, and may make wrong turns, but if we follow the Holy Ghost, we can make the right choices so we can live with our Heavenly Father again, and reach Nome! He did such a fantastic job with it! And loved showing off his map of Alaska!

Well, this post is the test to see how well the pictures turn out on the web page.

Friday, February 1st, 2008

Wow. Could it really already be February? Amazing! Time sure does fly by.

Today is a swimming day, but poor James woke up with a tummy ache and within a half hour, he had thrown up. I had this Tuesday PM, and was really hoping it was just something that I ate. But now that James is sick, we're just waiting for the others! I went to Safeway this morning, and bought a bunch of pop (my kids know that this is only for when they are sick!) and we are ready for the long haul! I wasn't sick for too long, so hopefully it will be shorter lived for others. Right now James is in seventh heaven, other than the occassional throwing up... he's upstairs in our bed, watching the 1st Harry Potter, and sipping on pop. It was quite pathetic this morning as he's tossing and turning, and saying "I really don't like feeling sick." But once he got to watch Harry Potter, he was happy.

Todd and James are ferociously reading the Harry Potter series... they started reading it together about 4 1/2 weeks ago, and they are already about 1/3 of the way through book 5. And if you've read the series, you know they aren't small! They read about 100 pages a night, as long as Papa's home! Last night they read till 11:20PM!

Glenn and I get together ourselves and read Stuart Little, Ralph and the Motorcycle, and those fun, cute classics. Other than that, Glenn is our builder and singer. Loves to build what he can... currently I have train tracks running ALL over the living room floor! And he loves to sing. As he's pushing his trains around, he's humming Christmas songs! He sure is growing up fast!

Alex loves shoes right now! My goodness! He's even in his PJ's as I speak, and still rummaging through all the shoes to find any that he thinks will fit him. Yesterday he brought me his snowboots, and then continued to try to put my shoes on also! He's also a little social butterfly... takes after James... and tries to carry on a conversation with anyone he finds!

Well, we're going to try a blog for a little while. It's so much fun looking at my friend's sites, that I think we'll try our own. It may be short lived, but we'll see! I hope you all enjoy, and am hoping I'll be better at posting pictures than I am at sending them to family!