Elise & Mason's activities

A glimpse of what Elise does in her Modern dance class:

And a normal morning with Mason:

Sammy's State Gymnastics Meet 3/17/18

Sammy loves, loves, loves gymnastics! He practices 5 days a week for 2 hours a day, and comes home and falls asleep on the couch many nights. He's on a great team of boys and has made some good friends this year. He competed at level 6B, age 12+.

Here's videos of his routines at the State meet this past March!

Floor: 7.6

Rings: 8.0

Parallel Bars: 8.3--he accidentally added in a more advanced skill so got docked points. Oops!

Vault: 8.5

High Bar: 7.3

Mushroom: 7.7

Grand total: 47.4!

There are only 2 boys' teams in the entire state of Wyoming, Laramie & Cheyenne. Sadly, Sammy is the only one in his level and age group...as has often been the case. It was fun going to a couple of meets where there were other boys in his level/age group--and he still medaled!

February 2018 Kiddos

Taking a break from loading wood

Oh, the cuteness!! When Ezra was 6-7 months old, we tried feeding him. He wanted nothing to do with it. However, when we game him food he could eat himself he started eating like a champ! He is quite possibly my best eater ever...so long as he can feed himself.

I bought the entire family (except Ruthie and Ezra) tickets to go see the Chinese Acrobats perform. I even got a babysitter for the littles! Stephen picked Maggie up, but was so exhausted after a long day at work that I ended up leaving him with the babies and taking Maggie with us! Sammy also invited his best buddy, Sebastian. An awful picture, but a fun evening!

"Take my picture, Mom!"

He still doesn't get that there is a dot on his forehead. The kids have been trying since he was 4 months old...

The tradition of giving Dad a heart attack on Valentine's Day continues! The kids also put hearts and candy on most of the other management professors' doors, making them the darlings of the day. 

Trevor has the best tooth-losing story of all: he lost a tooth by getting smacked in the face with a snow shovel!

In the snow-shovel-wielding person's defense, the tooth was barely hanging on. Sammy accidentally stepped on the show shovel (they were out playing in the snow) and the handle flipped up and whacked Trevor in the mouth. The tooth, sadly, was lost in the snow.

Trevor made a poster for our 4-H club's carnival booth

Lincoln did, too. Our theme was Decades: the Future. One of the club members made a catapult, and we catapulted rubber duckies into a rocket ship.

And then there were 2 gone! His second tooth was also barely hanging on, so he had me tie floss onto it and a door and slam the door. It was great fun!

Stephen, Mason, Ezra and I went to the temple. Stephen needed an answer as to whether or not we should move to Washington. We'll be moving this summer sometime.

Ezra started taking steps! He's not walking, just taking random steps every now and then.

Ruba-a-dub-dub, three babes in a tub

We all love our new wood stove

Ruthie is a nurturer, and she's better with throw up than Stephen!

February 2018 Sweet P Farm

February started out with my first official poultry processing job! Lincoln was a chicken grabber.

My set up. The birds go from left to right, kill cones, scalder, plucker, evisceration, chill tank. 

Elise was in charge of the evisceration table--she did 45 of the 51 birds processed.

The finished product!

Captain, before he hit his awful adolescent phase. Only 16.5 more months working with him until he becomes trustworthy! I think I can make it. I think I can. I think I can.

Chores involve a literal ton of moving feed in 50# bags. My kids are strong!

Pearl, Elise & Ruby getting in some morning loving. The does are due anytime in the next 4 weeks--can't wait for baby goat kids!

Chores also involve a lot of water. And with the well below freezing temps, they also involve a lot of hose draining.

Captain, again before his bratty stage, when the kids could still pet him without him being a juvenile delinquent.

A very cool picture. 

Baerli, in her favorite pot.

Schwanli

Heidi, the mama cat (obviously taken NOT in February)

"Tiny" the bantam araucana was having a tough day, so we brought her up to the house so she could warm up and rest.

Even with all the cold, there was clear space on the pond for all but a few days.

How we prep for dissection. I know, you want to join our school! Sorry, it's a private boarding school, and there's no way in the world you could afford it.

We took our 4 pigs in to be butchered and I brought home a set of lungs and a heart. We invited some other homeschooling friends over and had an amazing time seeing how everything worked. Amazing!!

Elise would like to wish you a very happy Valentine's Day!
The boys came up with all sorts of valentine cards that had to do with literal hearts--a vial of blood with "straight from the heart" on it; a piece of dried heart tissue in a card...

2018 Ballet Intensive Video Audition

Elise only applied to one ballet intensive this year, Orlando Ballet, which she was accepted into. However, she decided that she'd rather go back to Nepal for a 2-week cultural exchange. Here's her progress from the last year!

In honor of Sammy

Happy birthday to my sweet, sweet Sammy!!

Sammy turned 10 the end of March, and I have been remiss in recording how amazingly awesome the boy is! Ten is the year I throw a party for the kids (the only birthday party they get), so we had a dodge ball pizza party at the church, complete with a white elephant gift exchange. Sammy had a great time!

Getting his Bear merit badge.

Sammy is the kindest kiddo around. He's a peacemaker and likes everyone to be happy. In fact, we are working on teaching him that it is good to have an opinion--his own opinion. For example, when we were planning his birthday party I tried to figure out which he'd rather have, root beer floats or cake & ice cream.

"Well, which would be easier for you?"
"No, Sammy--what do you want?"
"Well...it's a birthday, so cake & ice cream would be good...but root beer floats are also really yummy..."
"But what do you want?"
"Well...I know Mason really likes root beer floats..."
Etc., etc.

It's hard to pin him down. Usually when he gives an opinion he gives the exact opposite opinion in the same sentence.

The little boys loooove playing with Sammy--he's creative and patient and silly and easy to be around. Ruth adores her Sammy, and sometimes chooses him over me! He can get her to calm down when she is upset and has everlasting patience with her fussing. He takes time to play with her at her level, never losing patience with things that make her happy. As I write this he is gently pushing her around the house on her little car. He saw that I was trying to blog, so is taking care of her.

At a recent doctor's appointment the Dr. heard a funny sound in Sammy's heart, so we had to go down to Fort Collins for a pediatric echo. Sammy has spent more time in doctor's offices than anyone between stitches, a concussion and then the echo. Fortunately nothing serious has resulted from any of those things--the echo being no exception. He has a very small hole in his pulmonic valve, but it should never be an issue with anything he wants to do. He doesn't need surgery or to change his lifestyle. It's just there. Thank goodness, because if he had to stop gymnastics I don't know what he'd do!

Very, very recently Sammy has discovered that he can read books-formerly-though-to-be-too-hard. A new world has opened up to him! He still loves listening to audio books (I do, too!), but isn't afraid of big books anymore. We do a thing where he reads a book of his choosing and then I choose a book for him to read. Well, actually I give him a stack of books to choose from. It works well. :)

The kids have to do one thing for me every day--I give them any sort of random jobs from taking out the bathroom trash to washing walls to vacuuming stairs to getting Ruth ready for the day, or as in the picture below, installing Ruth-proof locks on the cabinets. Sammy frequently goes above and beyond--he likes to go the extra mile, in this case I asked him to do one lock (and it took him awhile), but he ended up installing 3 more, just to be nice.

Sammy has a pig named TLB (Tomato Lettuce Bacon). He's hoping to sell it at the County Fair and make a couple thousand bucks. His responsibilities include hanging out with her every day and sharing feeding/watering/mucking duties. Soon he'll add walking her to the list. He's good with animals--his calmness encourages them to trust him, and they do.

For April Fool's Day Sammy decided we should have spaghetti & meatballs (his favorite meal)...minus any plates or utensils. He covered the table in plastic wrap and away we went, missionaries and all! He thinks we should eat that way more often...as it happens, we got our pigs the same day (the elders helped us get them in the barn), so I thought how we ate very appropriate to the evening's activities.

Sammy is rarely too busy to read to the little boys--I think he remembers that it wasn't long ago that he couldn't read so needed an older sibling to help him out. Calvin & Hobbes is a current favorite. He also enjoys playing games--for awhile he and I would play a game and read a book together every day. Now he more often plays games with his brothers, almost always "nice-e-ating", which is a word he made up that means being very nice to someone, especially when playing a game. He'll give away cards or money or favors, just to be nice. That really sums Sammy up. He's a nice guy, always willing to help out a brother (or sister or mother or father or friend).

In honor of Mason

Mason turned 12 on the 19th. Twelve. Wow--where did time go?

He was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood in the office of Deacon on April 24th, and today was his first time passing the sacrament.

For several weeks he has been anxious as to the ins and outs of that responsibility, and he talked with the other Deacons and Stephen and I to gather more information. He created diagrams and ran them by the other Deacons to make sure he understood where to go. (He also is going to make an app so other new Deacons can reference it.) We talked about reverence and being unassuming and not being distracting.

Pre-Deacon haircut

Today I played organ, so had the chance to watch him as he passed the sacrament for the first time. He was the picture of humility and meekness, so serious and focused on doing it right. He gave me the sacrament, and as he looked in my eyes I could see the question in his, "am I doing it right? I'm so happy, Mom!"

Mason is really growing up. He is still silly and immature, but he is having more moments of maturity, and I get more frequent glimpses of who Mason will be. He has seeds of greatness in him--kindness, intelligence, spirituality, responsibility, a tender heart, creativity, a hard worker. I think he is seeing those qualities more in himself, as well, and he is rising to that potential.

He is so excited about Scouts--the weekly meetings, Eagle Scout projects, being with friends, camping.... He's going to organize some of his good friends to come over once a week during the summer to work on projects together, from building dry ice bombs to writing computer programs to programming robots.

After he helped me take care of our 16 chicks for a couple of weeks, with me turning more and more of the responsibility over to him, I offered him the ownership of the flock. We talked about what that meant, and after thinking about if for quite a few hours he decided that he would like to do that. The other kids were upset at first that he got his own flock, but I told them that I would happily give each of them their own flock if they can show me they can care for them responsibly. Mason has really surprised me with his care of his flock--he really is becoming more responsible! Hallelujah! :)

The geese and ducks are part of my flock, but Mason has been a huge help with them, too.

Years ago Mason, Sammy and their friend William created a comic strip they call "Dude". The other day Mason decided to animate one of the strips...

Mason and Elise recently competed in a local Kiwanis talent show, Stars of Tomorrow. Mason was a little excited/nervous beforehand:

And his performance:

At an informal recital: