The Garners

The Us We Hope You Love

2011-12-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling the need to post something about us that will actually be meaningful to me a few years down the road. Here's a brief update on everyone:

Clint is as hard working as ever and has many obligations to attend to outside the home that keep me very grateful for any time I get with him and always wishing I could have him more. In fact, a few weeks ago we were at the breakfast table when Bryce said to me, "Mommy, is Daddy coming tonight?" -- as if it was a rare occasion that he might stop by and visit once in a while, not like he lives with us or anything. For the kids (who go to bed at 7:00) it's sometimes a rare treat to see their Daddy. He often goes to work before the kids wake up and doesn't get home until 6:30 or 7:00, trying to finish all his duties at the office. He has been going to scouts every Wednesday night for years so I generally don't see him at all until nearly 9:00 those nights. Even on Saturdays there is usually someone else who needs his help, a scouting activity, real estate homes to show, or property management apartments to maintain. He was finally able to sell our last hair salon (hallelujah!) last week so that should free up a bit of his time and lower his stress levels. Clint has gotten really into remote controlled helicopters and airplanes lately. He and my brother, Jeremy, have a lot of fun playing with their toys during their lunch breaks at work. Clint also started working out regularly at the gym with a personal trainer for a while and was loving it. The holidays have thrown off his schedule but he plans on picking that up again soon. Clint loves his kids and they adore him. He's got a very soft spot for our little girls and exclaims nearly every day how crazy it is that Baylee is getting so big.

I am as busy as always with my ever-growing diaper business, part-time homeschooling, raising 4 little children, doing my best at planning and cooking meals, trying to keep up with house cleaning and laundry, and I'm pregnant. For anyone who doesn't know yet, we are expecting our 5th baby in April. I'm now 22 weeks along and I'd post a picture but I don't have one. I pretty much look exactly like I did with the previous 4 pregnancies so there's nothing new to see anyway. :)

Baylee is getting so big. Not just tall, but mature too, and she's as helpful as ever with her younger siblings. She is 7, in the 2nd grade, and is loving her part time schooling at a local charter school. I still get her home on Mondays and Fridays for math and language arts homeschooling. She is reading very well and, most importantly, is loving to read. She's got an amazing teacher at the charter school and is in a small class (15 students) of combined ages (1st-3rd grade). She ran into one of her school friends at the grocery store last week and they were both so excited to see each other. They ran up to each other and didn't have too much to say but giggled like crazy. :) Which reminds me, when we go to the grocery store I get a big "car cart" to put Madi and Bryce in and Rigby likes to sit in the main cart area too. So Baylee enjoys getting a short cart to push by herself and following behind me so she can push all the groceries herself. We're quite the train. Baylee's best friend is Lily Clark. She lives a few houses up and across the street. Lately their favorite thing to play with has been their baby dolls. They are both sweet, caring little mommies.

Rigby is a smart kid. He is excelling in everything scholastically. He also attends the charter school 3 days a week, is 5 years old, and is in Kindergarten. He is in an accelerated 1st grade math and will begin 2nd grade math before the school year is over. His latest creative obsession is cutting paper. My office floor is constantly covered with tiny pieces of paper scraps. He and Baylee can work together and make almost anything using paper, glue, tape and staples. Nothing in my office is sacred anymore. Rigby is still a little emotional and is often reluctant to clean up anything, but these past few months he's had spurts of helpfulness where he find joy in doing everything I ask and helping me out even when I haven't asked yet. I need to figure out what causes these spurts so I can reproduce them more often! He is a mama's boy and often at bed time he tells me he loves me. I tell him I love him too and then he says, "No Mommy, I REALLY love you." And I say, "I know Rigs, I REALLY love you too." The other day he said this to me again and added, "No, I really love you. Not just like we say at bedtime, like I really love you all the time."

Bryce, at age 3, has the quirkiest personality and is adorable. Many people still have trouble understanding him and I hope we're not looking at a future of speech therapy but his siblings and I translate for him frequently, even to Grandma. He's currently obsessed with his Lightning McQueen car, which he takes with us everywhere (and frequently loses) and insists on sleeping with every night. He also like to pretend he's Fireman Sam (a cartoon he's gotten into on Netflix) and runs around "saving the day" whenever he "sees smoke". He's always been a kid who knows what he wants and insists on getting it, however unusual the request. He can quickly get upset if things aren't just how he planned but can be just as quickly be quieted by a simple explanation of why it can't be just how he planned. He is still cuddly when he wakes up from his naps and insists on a hug and kiss at bedtime but never from his daddy. For some reason he's on a kick where everything has to be from me. Nothing from Daddy is... well... it's not from Mommy so it's not what he wants. This attitude was especially unfair last night when Clint and I had just climbed into bed and I had finally laid my big belly down to watch TV and Bryce got up to use the restroom. He called for me to wipe his bum. I tried to send Clint in and he insisted it be Mommy. Of course.

Madalyn is as cute as ever and extremely mischievous. She's spilled flour across the kitchen floor 3 times in the past week. She's at that lovely stage where I start cleaning up one mess and she's already created another before I can finish. I'm trying to keep all bathroom/laundry room doors closed at all times but you can guess how successful that's been with 3 other children in the house. Her favorite place to dig is in my purse and my car keys have frequently been misplaced in the oddest places. Just today, she's gotten into the flour again, lathered herself in diaper rash cream, poked her finger into my tube of chapstick, effectively making it useless, pushed all sorts of lovely buttons on the computer to keep me on my toes, thrown away 4 books in the garbage can, put Rigby's school work in the laundry, turned on the water in the bath tub, and probably a few other things around the house I just haven't discovered yet. Thankfully, it's nap time.

Our new little peanut seems to be growing well and is kicking up a storm. We aren't planning on finding out the gender again this time but I may have an ultrasound in January, after our insurance plan changes.

I'll leave you with some pictures to make this post more interesting for the skimmers.

Apparently I do have one picture with my belly visible. This is me reading to the kids before bed. I loved that Madi was inquisitively reading her story book while I read so I called Clint in to take a picture.

In case you're wondering what my garage looks like:

All 14 of the currently available Oh Katy diaper colors.

The freezer jam Clint and I made together just before Thanksgiving.

Madi wearing Clint's underwear. She likes to dig in our piles of clean laundry and wear whatever she can put on.

One of last week's flour episodes

The remnants of today's flour episode... those are her jammies.

Madi "helping" me bake Rolo Cookies.

I didn't plan time for blogging today but now I have officially used up all of my diaper packaging time (/nap time) and have no hope of getting diapers packaged and delivered to UPS before going to the grocery store before it's too late to make a decent dinner. I hope it was worth it. Please validate my post with comments so I feel better about myself.

Mexican Food & Lunch Bags

2011-11-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

I fed the kids a usual, nothing special meal and put them to bed last night and then Clint cooked another of his gourmet meals for the two of us. I can't pronounce it but it's something he ate at a Mexican restaurant last week in Texas, called Camaron Poblano Asada. He didn't have the kind of steak it called for so it didn't wrap around everything very easily but it was delicious! I can't believe he was able to finish off his plate. I only finished half.

BEFORE

AFTER

I feel like a horrible mother but I didn't take one photo of our children in their costumes. Apparently I'm too busy anymore to think about taking pictures. I was trying to relax and enjoy the moment. At least it was a great evening as a family and the kids went to bed on time so Clint and I still got our time together... which seems to happen less and less these days.

I finished a sewing project today. As I was sewing away I suddenly realized that Madi was being really good. Here's why, and here's my evidence that Halloween actually happened at our house. Notice all the empty candy wrappers strewn across the table.

The sewing project I finished was these reusable lunch sacks/backpacks for each of our kids. The inside is lined with my leftover PUL (waterproof fabric) from when I used to sew my own diapers, so they can easily be wiped clean inside.

From left to right that's Madi's, Bryce's, Rigby's, and Baylee's.

Madi's is the only one that's not a backpack. I figured she could carry hers more easily than she could wear it. She loves it and has already filled it with random treasures like a handful of mismatching socks. :)

The ABC Show 2011

2011-10-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

Clint and I had the opportunity to exhibit my diapers at the ABC show in Kentucky last month. It was our first time at the show and it was quite the experience. While getting there and setting up was a lot of work, we met so many wonderful people and signed up some new retailers too. Our booth took some serious planning and my husband's genius, problem-solving brain to figure out the logistics (setting up a temporary clothes line sturdy enough to hold 12 diapers was harder than it looks) but we got a lot of compliments on our display. It was a long week away from our children but probably an even longer week for my dear friend, Erika, who was tending all 4 of my children (along with 3 young children of her own) for the entire week. She's such a great friend!

Our booth, complete with a clothes line, turf and lawn furniture.

Clint and me.

Bobbi-Jean Palmer from Kelly's Closet and me.

After the ABC Show ended we attended the RDIA conference and got the chance to meet and get to know many wonderful and influential people in the cloth diapering industry. I have no pictures from this event, except this one. Some other cloth diapering ladies and I had some fun at our lunch table using the Mary's Softdough samples we were given to create some fabulous cloth diapers, flowers and fruits and whatever else we came up with. One lady even made a toilet and diaper sprayer with a dirty diaper hanging over the toilet! Unfortunately, I have no picture of that one. It was fun to be around so many like-minded people.

I met another cloth diaper manufacturer who also had 4 young children at home. While talking to one of her employees I asked, "How does she do it all?" (since I frequently find myself completely overwhelmed with all my responsibilities as business owner, mother, wife, and homemaker) and her response was, "Oh yes, it's a lot of hard work but she does have 3 nannies and a cook and she never has to cook or clean but it's still a lot to do."

As I sit here at my clustered desk knowing there are dishes in the sink, laundry to be folded, diapers to change, diapers to wash, dinner to be cooked, children to kiss and hug and hold, and orders to be filled and shipped, I am more comforted in knowing that I just can't do it all at once and that's okay. :)

Fall is Here!

2011-10-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

Our chickens are still laying but I'm starting to notice them slowing down a bit now that the days are getting shorter. We were planning on putting a light in the coop to trick them into laying through the winter but right now we're more concerned about actually getting the coop finished so our hens have some decent shelter for the winter.

Enjoying some family time with Daddy home.

The kids and I went to a local corn maze and had a blast. Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery shortly after we got there and I had to use my phone to take some of the pictures. We would have had some great pictures of the kids choosing their pumpkins too. Oh well, so goes life.

Can you believe I actually cooked a turkey? Okay, some people were surprised I hadn't before because it's such a basic homemaker thing to do but... I'm not your standard homemaker. However, the turkey was delicious!

I finally started pretending that Madi has enough hair for a pony tail.

I cooked chili for dinner one night (after it SNOWED) and Clint brought home these pumpkin bread bowls for us to eat it in. We're so festive.

I only left the room for a minute...

2011-09-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

I'd just gotten Madi out of the bathtub and set her up to the table for breakfast. Rigby and Bryce were eating their cereal too and I was on an important phone call. I had to leave the room because the children were too noisy and when I returned, this is what I found. Apparently Bryce provided Madi with a plate of butter and she proceeded to lather her face and hair with it. Looks like we're headed back to the tub!

So many pictures

2011-08-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, I'm just so behind on the blog it's overwhelming. I'm posting all the blog worthy photos from the past 2 months and they'll have to speak for themselves.

One day's worth of Rigby's paper airplane creations. I love how creative he is and how much he loves to fold paper. He's going to make great things someday!

The kids and I went for a hike on the Spanish Fork River trail. Baylee and Rigby rode their bikes and stopped at every sign so we could read it and learn about the plants and animals in the area.

My view the entire time. LOL.

Rigby was cute when he got really tired of riding. He told me he couldn't ride any more (and I don't blame him, it was SO hot and we'd come a long way) I told him he needed to tell his body he was in charge and just keep riding even though his body was tired. He started shouting "I'M IN CHARGE!" with a growl in his voice and kept on pumping!

We found a place to eat lunch near the Spanish Fork Sports Park and the sprinklers were on at the park so they all had fun cooling off and getting wet.

Bryce, really enjoying some aromatherapy. :)

Me with Bono's guitar. If you haven't heard how my brother-in-law Adam Bevell got called on stage to play his guitar with U2 you can google "blind man with U2" or watch the official video on u2.com.

Family reunion time. Sadly, I forgot my camera when we went to Bear Lake for our annual Clarence Hulse reunion so here area few pictures other people took of us.

This is at my sister house where they have water that sprays up through their trampoline.

And a pretty little waterfall that the kids love to dip their feet in.

Sydney, Aunika, and Baylee -- Cousins

Madi's first steps!

The gang at Bear Lake. I think my mom figured there were still 27 family members missing from this picture that could not make it to the reunion this year. This reunion is just my Grandma and her descendents but I'm not going to lie, the majority of us are from my immediate family. My parents have 8 married children (so that's 16) plus 26 grandchildren, making 44 people in my parents' family alone.

The talent show

Aunt Brenda led us in a line dance. LOL! We are the coolest family ever.

Baylee and Rigby both took swimming lessons this year. They can now doggy paddle. They had so much fun!

We're averaging 4 eggs a day from our chickens and my garden, although hard to believe, is actually producing... a lot! I've never had a successful garden before so I'm feeling pretty good about myself eating my daily tomato sandwich. :)

The Past Few Weeks in 100 Pictures Or Less

2011-06-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

For our anniversary Clint took me to Salt Lake for some romantic go kart speed racing. :) It was so much fun and I was so sore afterward. Then we got massages and enjoyed an awesome gourmet meal at the Metropolitan Restaurant. They sat us in a little corner booth where we could sit next to each other and they brought this plate out for us when we were finished with our meal. I had to snap a picture with my cell phone, even though it was such a nice place I felt ridiculous doing it. Finally we went to the movies and saw Thor. It was an awesome day!

Bountiful Baskets! I love them. I've been getting the organic basket every Saturday lately and we're loving it. Their 9 grain bread is delicious too!

We tried swiss chard for the first time ever. I used the stalks in a creamy pasta and cooked the leaves in butter. It was really good! I wanted more so I looked for it at Macey's the next time I went shopping and couldn't find it. :( Bummer. The kids even ate this stuff!

I found Bryce changing this doll's cloth diaper with a cloth wipe that he stole from Madi's wipe stash. I love it!

Madi's latest hobby....

Bryce's goose egg after tripping on the front porch and smacking his forehead into the cement step.

The quilt I finally finished and had quilted for our anniversary.

Madi and Daddy.

Olivia (friend) and Madi

Classic Rigby.

The onesies and binkie holders I've been making lately. The binkie holder snaps directly to the onesie. I'm selling them on Etsy if anyone is interested.

Bryce after he painted his face with mascara and eye shadow.
Me: "Bryce, you can't get into my makeup!"
Bryce with a quivering lip and alligator tears: "But I like you Mommy. I really like you though."

Baylee, Rigby and I had the opportunity to go with a local homeschooling group on a fieldtrip to ride the Heber Creeper yesterday. It was a 3 hour train ride during which we got "robbed" by Blackjack and his gang and got to stop at a park and get out and play for a few minutes. On the ride back to Heber City Baylee and Rigby both fell asleep.

Playing in the back yard.

The chickens really enjoy being let out to roam in the back yard and pick the grass but I have to stay out there and protect my garden while they're out. I loved this picture! haha.

My garden.

Our pluot tree... that's our best guess as to what this fruit is. We didn't plant the tree, it was here when we moved in. The fruit is delicious!

Olivia (friend) and Baylee

Annie

Ella

Marla

Mary

Meghan with her feathers ruffled.

Star running :)

Star

Last week we were at my parents house and my dad went to his ward scouts activity. They were having a car show and dinner and he was surprised to find out that the local helicopter pilot school was there offering helicopter rides so he had me bring Baylee and Rigby over for a ride. Amazing! They LOVED it.

Eight years ago...

2011-05-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

Clint and I will be celebrating our 8th anniversary next week. I thought it would be fun to share some snippets from journal entries I wrote when we started dating back at BYU-Idaho. Enjoy!

Preface: Clint and I met on my first day back at school for the spring winter semester, on January 5th, 2003.

Monday, January 20, 2003
"I don't have much time to say anything because it's already 2:00 AM. I just wanted to say that I'm really starting to like my FHE brother Clint. (for those of you who don't know, at LDS universities like BYU-Idaho they group apartments full of male and female student into groups so that you can have weekly Family Home Evening lessons together on Monday nights... it does not mean that Clint and I are related in any way! LOL) We hung out Friday and Saturday. Oh, and Sunday and tonight too. :) But I got interested Friday night and decided I liked him Saturday night. We played my guitar for a little bit on Saturday and he played 2 songs he wrote. They were amazing songs and he had a very cute voice. One of the songs he had written for whomever he proposed to. It was a proposal song. It was so cute! I've always wanted my husband to propose to me that way! :) of course, he'd have to write a new song if he ever does propose now because I've already heard it. LOL. Anyway, at church on Sunday, he was passing the sacrament and I was on the front row because my roommates were giving talks. When he walked past me I got butterflies!! Sunday night he and his roommates came over and we played Truth of Dare. (So juvenile, I know) and to make a long story short, I ended up having to tell Clint that I have a "crush" on him. It was the most embarrassing thing. After it was all over and they left I totally cried. I was just so humiliated. Did I mention Clint has a girlfriend too? Well, he does. ....(Fast forward to the next night when Clint and I talk on the phone) So basically he told me that he doesn't know what's going on with him and his girlfriend. He says they're dating other people. He also said he's interested and would like to take me out on a date and 'see what happens'. So we'll see what happens. He is a very cute guy and he's always happy, smiling and laughing. So far he has been VERY sweet."

So in between that post and the next Clint calls and cancels our date because he and his girlfriend made up! OUCH! But just a couple of days later...

Sunday, January 26, 2003
"Clint called Thursday night. We talked for 3 hours. He broke up with his girlfriend. He wants to take me out on Thursday. (I must add here that my first answer was an immediate 'no'. Then he said, 'I'd understand if that was your answer but let me explain myself first. There are a lot of reasons why I should have broken up with Brittany a long time ago but the thing that finally made me do it was the fact that I couldn't shake the feeling that I NEEDED to take you out.' To which I responded, 'Okay.' And he said, 'Okay, what?' and I said, 'Okay, I'll go out with you.') I wish I could tell you our whole conversation but we just got to know each other a lot better. I really like him a lot. I see a lot of potential between us. My favorite thing though is his smile. He smiles so often too! He's always smiling and laughing and you just can't look at that adorable grin and not smile too. ...it's late and I've stayed up 'till 4:00 AM the last two nights in a row. I really better go!"

Sunday, January 27, 2003
"I don't know how I'm going to survive on no sleep like this all week! Once again, it's 2:00 AM and here I am still awake and still with homework to do. Can I just tell you that I am so in love with Clint!? He's so adorable. That smile of his just gets me so bad! We sat very close all through FHE tonight. After FHE was over everyone left but Clint stayed. We went for a drive in his truck and he let me drive! ...I can't wait to go out with him on Thursday. We'll probably kiss! It's funny because I know that he's looking for a wife and it doesn't freak me out. I'm in it for marriage too. I honestly want to find out if I'd like to marry him. We'll see how it goes! Until the next big event with Clint! :) Goodnight!"

Tuesday, January 28, 2003 (Notice it's still 2 days BEFORE our official first date, LOL)
"...He walked me to my door. We hugged for a long time and when I pulled away he kept his arms around me and looked right at me. I looked down because I wasn't going to kiss him yet. When I looked back up he was still there and he kissed me! We kissed a few times. He is a very good kisser! I am so giddy! It's 2:30 AM again though and I've got to get to sleep."

Sunday, February 2, 2003
"Clint had to work today and couldn't make it to church but he made it home just in time for the CES fireside tonight which was amazing. It was very cool to be there with Clint and it just felt right. Last night something just seriously clicked between us and I feel so strongly towards him now. I want to say it's love but I'm aftraid to just yet. However, I feel like something is coming. I think he might be the one. I look back and it makes sense that so many events in my life recently have been preparing me for this. It's crazy and I hate to say it for fear of being wrong but it's how I feel.

From a letter I wrote to Clint this same day, in response to a question he asked me: "...I can talk to you and I'd feel comfortable telling you anythting. I can sense that you have a strong testimony. You can cook. You can sing. You can play the guitar. You want a family. You're a hard worker. You honor your priesthood. You're happy and it's contagious. I LOVE your smile! ...At first I approached the dating scene up here thinking I wouldn't find anyone to replace the previous and, to be honest, not really thinking it was possible. I may have ben proven wrong this time (just this once though) :) When I first decided that I was interested in you I had no idea what to expect but the more time I spend with you the more I learn about you and I just have to say that I've been thoroughly impressed so far. There are certain qualities you posses that I've always imagined my husband having. There are many small things that I had brushed off as silly fancies or as not so important because I didn't think I would find them all in one person.

I realize it hasn't been that long. I also realize that we have so much more to learn about each other and to experience before we can know much of anything really. Only time can tell how we'll end up and only Heaven knows where we're headed. As for now, I'm willing to put in all I've got to find out if this works."

Then Clint and I met each others parents over the next week and I had so many more comfortable and right feelings. Clint told me he loved me for the first time and I said it back.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003 (15 days after our first kiss)
"Clint and I talked about marriage tonight. I've got so much to think about... I have a good feeling about him and marriage but I'm also nervous about how much time has passed and the fact that I've only known him a short while. I want this to happen so badly but I also know that this is the most important decision I'll ever make. I want to do it right... Right now I just feel like the spirit will not lead me astray and I just need to heed it. The Lord knows what's best and I've got to be willing to accept any answer He gives me... Looking into his eyes tonight was so amazing and strange. I looked into his eyes and asked myself if I was sure I could look into these eyes for eternity. I felt sure. Then the thought that I just might be doing that, that he very well could be the one, made my heart leap. It was an exciting feeling. It's also a strange thought though. I could be married in a few months! Can you even imagine? It never really occurred to me to try to imagine what this part would feel like. I always just imagine the wedding, the honeymoon, and life together later. It's so interesting to see how this part feels. It really is very exciting."

I fasted, prayed a lot, and went to the temple to pray and felt very good about my decision to marry Clint.

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

"The only problem so far has been convincing my mother and Jenny that this is right and not to worry. Mom is concerned because it has all happened so fast and she keeps saying "What's the rush?" She doesn't think I can really know him after 3 weeks. I see the logic in that one. I feel like it's been a lot longer than three weeks and I know him really well. Logically, there's a possibility that I'm completely wrong. However, I'm not basing my decision on logic. I'm not basing it on love or lust either. I'm basing it on something I know I can always trust and something that could never lie to me and that's the Spirit.

I got an email from Clint that morning that said, "...I hope you know that I love you tons and that you can rest assure that everything will work out when we get married. I will do everything in my power to treat you like a queen and take care of you. I am so happy that we are together that I really can't even explain it. I hope that your mom is okay with the fact that we are going to get married and hopefully she'll have a little more comfort once I come to your house and she gets to know me a little more than she does. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I love you and I hope that you have an excellent day. Love, Clint"

Fevruary 22, 2003
"I am so in love. I love Clint so much. It's not just the gazing into his eyes and the kisses either. It is that too, but it's so much more. I'm going to love him when he's old, and when he has a pot-belly. I'm going to sacrifice myself for his happiness. I'm going to make myself better for him and I'm excited to do all of that! I'm excited to serve him. I'm so excited to learn and grow together with him. This is it! This is really it, and it's such an exciting feeling! I am so HAPPY!!! He's amazing. :)"

Clint and I took a trip down to Utah to visit my family and he had "the talk" with my Dad, who gave Clint his blessing in marrying me. Clint proposed on Friday, March 7th, almost exactly 2 months after the day we met and 5 weeks and 3 days after our first kiss. We were married a few short months later on May 31st, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.

So Clint, 8 years and 4 children later, I'm happy to inform you that I still feel blissfully happy and so lucky to be your wife. I love you more than ever!

Big Event

2011-05-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

I saw this on my sidebar in Facebook yesterday and it cracked me up:

Thanks for the reminder Facebook! I should probably post something on his wall in celebration. :)

May

2011-05-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of May my friend Erika and I went to Texas to attend a tradeshow for my diapers. The tradeshow was not open to the public, the only buyers were retail stores. It was a lot of work but Erika and I had a great time. We hadn't had a sleepover since high school! ;) It wasn't the same though. We missed our kids and our husbands!

Getting ready on the first day of the tradeshow.

A sculpture made of cowboy hats

Our booth

A tradeshow party at the world's largest honky tonk, Billy Bob's.

Erika and I both participated in an armadillo race and riding the mechanical bull.

The winning prize. Click on the picture to blow it up and read it. It's funny.

It's a good thing we got a room with two beds... so we could load the other bed with all our junk!

On my first day back home Madi decided to get into the garbage, where I had recently thrown away the starter plants I had killed from lack of watering. That's potting soil spilled all over the floor. She was SO proud!!

Dancing

Enjoying the sunshine in her Cherry colored diaper.

She did not like the feel of the grass on her knees so this was her crawling solution.

My favorite :)

Bryce trying to catch a chicken

You can see a little bit of our coop in progress in the background.

Got one! Going for a ride.

He loves his hens.

We got nothing but rain for at least 3 days last week! Clint had to hustle and build some shelves in his shed so we could move some things out of the garage and make room for my new shipment of diapers that came on Thursday... and it rained through the whole process! It was such a pain to try and keep the table saw and wood protected from the rain. We did it though! Well, mostly Clint did it. I took care of the kids and helped as much as I could in between. I have such a great man!

Oh, and Baylee finished soccer.

April

2011-05-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

It's been way too long! I have a lot to catch up on. It's times like this when I prefer to let the pictures do the talking....

The Tulip Festival and Children's Discovery Gardens at Thanksgiving Point:

They had a collection of random floating objects for the kids to send down the stream.

And a stage for children to put on their own performances.

Bryce, Baylee, Rigby, Ava (my neice), and Madi

Rolling down the hill

I just thought this was so cute. I love it when my babies get so tired they fall asleep while playing with their toys.

I can't think of anything better to do with an empty box than turn it into a car, can you?

The farm at Thanksgiving Point:

This guy thought he'd save himself the trouble of trying to lick through the bars and just stand up on the fence. The children were DELIGHTED.

She's getting so big and loves to stand up everywhere. She is now standing up all on her own for just a few seconds. She's very proud of herself when she does this and usually claps. :) No steps yet.

Bryce likes to dress up. You've seen his "super cake" before but for a while he brought it to a whole new level and wore this whole outfit at some point every day for weeks. Hilarious!

Easter bunny ears.

The Easter Egg Hunt:

Baylee holds chickens like a baby. It's so funny to see a chicken laying across her arms with her legs up in the air. She walks around the neighborhood holding her chicken like this.

The GREAT Cloth Diaper Change

2011-04-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to attend our local location in Salt Lake City of The Great Cloth Diaper Change. There were locations all over the world participating in attempting a new world record for the most cloth diapers changed simultaneously. Our diaper change was at 10:30 AM, and in Australia there were people participating at about 2:00 in the morning! I'd like to think that I would have been there, even at 2:00 AM but I can't say for certain. :) There were 63 official cloth diapers changed at our location, which I thought was an amazing turnout considering it was the Saturday before Easter and most everyone who came was missing out on an Easter egg hunt. It was so fun! I can't wait for next year.

Madi and I just before the big diaper change.

Holding up the diapers we will use.

Showing off our babies with their newly changed fluffy bums!

There's Madi, back and center with the dark blue diaper. :)

Madi and me at my booth.

Anita Palmer of clothdiaperutah.org and me at my booth.

Earth Day Sale

2011-04-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've said anything about my diapers. I'm having so much fun with my Earth Day sale! I've been giddy about it all day. It's funny what gets me excited these days. I just can't tell you how fun it is to know that I made a product and people like it, people buy it, and people use it! Amazing!! I love my business.

I'm also preparing to go to my local location of The Great Cloth Diaper Change next Saturday, when people all over the world will get together and simultaneously change their baby's cloth diapers, in hopes of getting into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most cloth diapers changed at once. I will be setting up a booth at our SLC location and there will be giveaways and door prizes and it should be lots of fun! It will also be a practice run for the BIG event I will be attending in TEXAS the next week. On May 2nd, one of my very best friends (Erika) and I will board a plane to Fortworth, TX and attend the All Baby & Child Spring Education Conference and Tradeshow. We will attend a few educational classes on Tuesday morning and then the tradeshow will begin. The show is not open to the public, only business owners looking to add product to their stores. I've been doing everything I can to prepare. If this show goes well then I hope to be able to attend another, larger show in September that will be in Kentucky! I now have over 30 retailers selling my diapers and hopefully I will be getting more from the tradeshow. Things are moving along!

I was thinking the other day about how many personal friends I've converted to cloth so far. I can think of 9 off the top of my head but there are probably more that I'm forgetting, and several more who I don't know personally. That's a whole lot of disposables NOT being purchased and trashed, a whole lot of money being saved, and a whole lot of fun! Seriously, you may not believe me but it's true, cloth diapering is actually FUN and ADDICTING. I can't explain the joy of pulling a freshly washed load of diapers out of the dryer and choosing which color to put or your baby today. I love it!

Chicken Coop in Progress

2011-04-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

The goal was to have it done by now since the chicks are technically old enough to live outside now, bu the weather has not cooperated with Clint's plans. It's been raining every weekend lately! Hopefully we'll get some nice sun here this weekend and we'll have a completed coop. Clint is so amazing at building things. I'm so glad I have a handy husband!

Yes, that's linoleum. He wanted the floor to clean up easily. We have such spoiled chickens. He's recycled most of the materials from the construction site of my parents' new home.

Pillow Cases

2011-04-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

Baylee is learning to sew. She started out sewing on paper with no thread. I printed out pages with straight lines, curvy lines, and shapes and then she sewed over them. She did an amazing job! She wanted to make something useful so we started with pillow cases. Of course we couldn't make one for Baylee alone, so Rigby and Bryce got one too. Baylee helped to sew them all!

He's 3!

2011-04-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Bryce's third birthday last night. I can't believe how fast he's grown. Bryce is the sweetest little boy you'll ever know. He's talking so much more these days and it's adorable because he still sounds younger than he is. He's my first child to potty train well before his third birthday. I give all the credit to cloth diapers. I began cloth diapering him at 3 months old. (Hopefully this means that Madi will be easy to potty train when the time comes too.)

A few of Bryce's favorite things:
Elmo
Asking me to sing the Elmo's World song
His "super rescue cake" (cape)
His cowboy hat
Kisses and hugs
Being carried up/down the stairs
"Queen" (Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars)
Riding in the very back seat of the van
The park
Sweets
Almond Milk (he'll drink it any day over cow's milk)
Playing with the chickens
Doing anything and everything his big brother and sister do
Dogs - he insists on stopping to pet any and every dog we pass at the park

Common phrases you'll hear him say:
(At bedtime) "Mommy/Daddy I wan kiss you... KISS ME!!!!"
"I un gook (I want a book), can you read?"
"T-T-Pen!" (T.T.F.N. - stands for Ta Ta For Now - my mother says it to him every time we leave her home)
"I wuv you Mommy"
"Thank you welcome" (he thinks he's supposed to say them both)
"I wan hold you Mommy" (BTW, I'm very proud that he graduated to calling me "Mommy" just a couple of months ago instead of "Maya"... which happens to be my sister's dog's name.)
"I need shoes!" (He shouts this in a panic any time someone looks remotely close to thinking about walking out the front door)
"Madi need go bed." (Every time Madi cries)

His Elmo cake

Just pretend you can't see the red frosting oozing down the sides of the cake, okay?

Singing Happy Birthday.
Which reminds me: the whole time I was decorating the cake he kept singing, "Happy Birthday Elmo's World! My birthday Bryce!"

Tired. What she really means is, "Please pick me up Mommy."

I loved Rigby's happy expression in this photo.

The birthday boy, sporting his super rescue cape and cowboy hat. He wears this every time we leave the house. :)

Soccer!

2011-04-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

I'm officially a soccer mom. Baylee had her first soccer game last Wednesday and another on Friday. Our team happened to win both but at this age who really cares right? Almost all of the other girls have played soccer before so she's a little behind but I think she's doing really well. She at least runs after the ball with everyone! :) She's a little shy about kicking but with time she should catch on. She was SO HAPPY to be there! The ENTIRE first game she ran up and down the field with a huge grin on her face. So cute. Clint is also the coach. When no one else volunteered they called to say there wouldn't be a team without a coach so Clint took on the position. It's been a very new experience for him. He spent hours researching the rules of soccer and trying to cram study before the first game, since he also has to be the ref! LOL. He's doing great. Such an awesome Daddy!!

See her grin?

Go Seagulls!

Good Game, Good Game, Good Game, Good Game...

Chicks Outside

2011-03-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Baylee, Rigby and I brought the chicks outside for the first time and let them explore. I set them all in the grass and then backed away and squatted down on the ground with my camera to take some pictures and guess what they did. They all waddled over to me and hid under my legs like I was the mother hen! It was so cute. But then, of course, I couldn't take any pictures. They worked up some courage after just a minute or two and braved the cold breeze and the great outdoors on their own.

You can see a just little bit here of my garage full of boxes of diapers:

Choo-Choo

2011-03-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

After breakfast this morning Bryce said to me, "Mommy, I all done. Peez may I pay choo-choo?"
Of course you can you sweet little boy! I love it!

P.S. He wears a "super rescue" cape ALL day now. It's the first thing he looks for when he wakes up. :)

And Rigby today after he helped Baylee choose which shirt to wear, "That looks stylish!" HAHA!

Bucket-Head Super Hero and Cowboy

2011-03-28T07:07:00.000-07:00

Cutest. Boys. Ever.

Elmo & Eek

2011-03-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

Forgot to post about our two new additions, Elmo (Bryce's -- he named it) and Eek (Madi's -- the noise she makes most often right now is an earsplitting screech! So we thought "eek!" was a fitting name).

Elmo:

Eek:

And look how much Gilbert and Stripe have grown!

Gilbert:

Stripe:

She's 1!

2011-03-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Madi's first birthday last Friday. I can't believe she's 1 year old already. It goes by so fast.

Here she is with the birthday hat that Baylee made her. :)

Get this silly thing off my head!

The frosting hair.

And a newborn photo just to remember:

Egg Hunt

2011-03-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

We played an egg hunt game for school last week. I wrote a story and printed clip art pictures to go with it and then hid all the sentences and pictures inside plastic Easter eggs, along with a tiny piece of candy. When all the eggs were gathered they laid out the contents on the front porch and put the words and photos together. Then they arranged them in the correct order and taped them into their own story book. They had a blast!

Chicks

2011-03-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

Our chicks are now about 3 weeks old. We have moved them to the garage. They smelled too bad to have in the front room. :) They're getting pretty big and it's fun to see them hop up and stand on the edge of the box as soon as we take the chicken wire off the top. Here are some fun chick photos for your viewing pleasure...

Star, flying up to stand on the edge of the box:

Megan spreading her wings:

Megan: She probably looks the oddest of them all at this funny teenage stage.

Mary

Annie

Star

Ella

Just realized I didn't take a photo of Marla. Sorry Marla.

And my favorite picture of all: Star walking along the edge of the box. Hilarious!

FHE

2011-03-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

For family home evening last night we went to Jumping Jacks (a family fun center with inflatable slides and jumping toys) and then we ate at the new Denny's in Springville. Since they just opened they're letting kids under 10 eat free every day all month!

I have never seen Bryce have as much fun as he did at Jumping Jacks last night. He climbed up the tallest slide there, which was a small mountain to him, probably 20 times. It took him about 5 minutes to climb up and then he's fly down with a euphoric grin across his little hot and red face, only to begin the arduous climb again. It was hilarious to watch. Madi even enjoyed herself once she warmed up to it. And of course Baylee and Rigby had a blast, but we knew they would. They were the ones begging to go for weeks!

Rigby's prayer last night:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Please help us go to Jumping Jacks more than just sometimes.

Please help us to be good and not talk during prayers.

Please help us never forget any friends that we have, even if we make them up.

Please help us all to be nice.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

and then there was today...

2011-03-11T15:47:00.000-08:00

Just so we're being realistic and I am not leading anyone to believe it's all sunshine and flowers over here all the time: today was NOTHING like yesterday! I'm not sure if everyone got up on the wrong side of the bed/crib/bunk, but the stars did not align correctly for us today. By 10AM I had already exhausted my lungs from shouting and sent Rigby to his room for what I thought might be the rest of the afternoon. I was secretly hoping he'd fall asleep in there.

Did I mention Bryce is potty training? Forgot to say that yesterday. He's really been doing quite well. Today's grocery store trip could have been so much worse if he'd had an accident. Thankfully he didn't. But we did have a potty stop where all 3 of my potty goers had to go. (Thankfully today it was all at the same time instead of what happened at Costco on Monday where I took Bryce and got everyone loaded back up in the cart and made it back out to the middle of Costco when Rigby started the potty dance.) As it was, I couldn't get Bryce's clothes off and put him on the toilet WHILE holding Madi so I asked Baylee to hold her for me. The only problem was she had to go to the bathroom too and she whined about that the whole time Bryce was going. Rigby came out of the boy's room and hadn't washed his hands so I sent him back to the girl's room to do it. He walked into the girl's room with several strangers and shouted "HI!" "Wah!" "I'm Rigby!" (Just liking the echo of his voice in a bathroom) By this time I had already put Madi back in the cart that was out in the store so I had to stand in the doorway, holding the door open, hollering instructions to Baylee, Rigby, and Bryce about washing their hands, not shouting, and not looking under the stalls while about 5 women squeezed past me going in or out of the bathroom. I felt like I was herding wild animals through the restroom.

About 10 minutes through our 80 minute grocery trip Rigby and Bryce started running away and chasing each other through the isles of Macey's. Half the time I had no idea where they were, though their hyper screaming could be heard throughout the store. By the time we got to the checkout stand I had 7 WIC vouchers to use plus a cart overflowing with other groceries. The boys fought and pushed and screamed and Rigby kept pushing the cart away from me. Madi had HAD it and was screaming too. We were checking out like this for 20 minutes.

By the time the cart was loaded and I'd paid for the groceries I headed straight for the door. It was well past Bryce's nap time and he wanted me to hold him. I tried to hold him and push the cart at the same time but it wasn't working out well and we almost hit a truck in the parking lot because I couldn't steer a full cart (with Rigby riding underneath it) with one hand. Thankfully a Macey's employee came up behind me and offered to push my cart for me. I was very grateful. Then I noticed he already had a cart and now he was pulling two carts toward my car. "Is that cart mine too?" I asked. Yes. Yes, it was mine and I didn't even know I left half my groceries behind in the store.

When we got home I tried to feed Madi and she swatted the spoon full of peas and splattered it all over my face. I put her to bed and went to get Bryce. I made him go potty (he's wearing underwear but I have to stay right on top of him). He finally went, kicking and screaming. Then I put him to bed but he had wet the bed last night so I'd changed the sheets and he was very upset that he didn't have the same blankets. He screamed for 30 minutes before he finally fell asleep.

I sent Baylee and Rigby to the basement to watch cartoons.

I'm pretty sure nobody learned anything today.

Please enjoy this excerpt from Bryce's crying fest.
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Check this out on Chirbit

Chick Photo Shoot and Other Things

2011-03-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

This may be a little too much CHICK for you to handle but we love our chicks! We've had them for just over a week now. Bryce holds them a little too much and scares me a lot but can't be told what to do and moves swiftly with them if I try to interfere. He is surprisingly gentle, and actually seems to have a good feel for how to handle them. Rigby is still not confident enough to snatch one up out of the box and Baylee sits and holds them every chance she gets. Madi hangs on to the box, stands up, and watches them a lot but has stopped being so grabby with them. She has knocked over their water several times. So far they're all doing well and I figure if they've survived this long then chances are great they'll hang in there. They are warming up to us and seem more comfortable every day when we hold them. One even hopped up onto Baylee's lap yesterday of her own accord.

All of our chicks are growing awesome wings and Megan has the longest tail feathers so far. Megan is FAST too.

Bryce and Annie (above)

Bryce and Marla (below)

Star peering at her reflection

Baylee and Star

Marla

Annie

Ella

Megan, stretching her neck

Mary

I have been researching about Thomas Jefferson Education (tjed.org) lately. I have finished the book "A Thomas Jefferson Education" and am halfway through "Leadership Education - The Phases of Learning". I HIGHLY recommend it for any parent to read, no matter where your children are going to school. I have learned so much! I'm thrilled about all I'm discovering. I also attended a lecture given by an experienced homeschooling mother about TJED on Tuesday. She talked about how to inspire your children to learn.

If you're interested, here is a link to a great summary of what TJED is all about: http://www.tjed.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/TJEdInOurHome.pdf

One thing that was mentioned in the Leadership Education book was that if you set a table for your children full of addictive, highly seasoned foods and then create a centerpiece of fruits and vegetables, then it doesn't matter how beautiful that centerpiece is, your children will obviously choose to eat the unhealthy and addictive foods the majority of the time. The same would go for the way you set up your home. If your living room is centered around the television, Wii, and/or computer and you have a large and exciting selection of books that are stored out of the way in a less trafficked room, what message are you sending your children and how do you think they will spend their free time?

One of the first things Clint and I agreed upon when we got married was that we would never have a video gaming system of any sort in our home, so that part has been easy for us. Since we had already moved our television to the basement about a year ago (for this exact reason!) but the kids still used it as their default thing to do when they were bored, I made a new rule. No TV until after lunch. We started that rule last week. Before the rule, we would finish our "school" stuff in the morning and Baylee would immediately ask to watch a movie. Interestingly enough, since they've now had more practice being creative and coming up with games to play with each other, they haven't asked to watch TV even ONCE this week, and it's Thursday! It's AMAZING!! (Although Baylee and I did watch the "March of the Penguins" documentary while we folded laundry on Monday, but that was all my doing.) I think this is from a combination of the fact that I made the new rule, and also that we cleaned out our toys. Each of the children were allowed to choose 5 toys to keep and I selected a few more myself. The rest filled two giant trash bags and is headed to D.I. as soon as I get around to it. :) Our house has been cleaner ever since, and there's more room for creativity.

This afternoon Baylee and Rigby dressed as a cowboy and a cowgirl and took their stick horses outside to play. When I brought out their lunch for a picnic I was delighted to hear Baylee attempting to imitate the way the cowboy in "The Indian in the Cupboard" speaks. (We finished that book last week BTW). Adorable.

The lecture I attended on Tuesday gave me some GREAT ideas about "structuring time, not content" (TJED concept) in our home. The biggest thing, that is also going to be the hardest for me, is that I need to get up EARLY in order for any of it to work. That is one of my new goals. This morning I got up at 6:30 when Bryce and Rigby did. I told the children they had to brush their teeth, have their hair combed, and be dressed before they could have breakfast. Wow, that was amazing. Such a simple thing that made a huge difference. I even did the boys' hair which, let's be honest, never happens (with the exception of Sundays). After breakfast we sang a hymn and had family prayer and read scriptures (now if only we could schedule this early enough that Clint could be here with us). I let Baylee hold her own copy of The Book of Mormon and she started reading along with me. When I had to stop and say something to Bryce, (probably something like, "Bryce, seriously! Please be quiet and stop climbing above our heads on top of the couch, and please don't drive your car across my scriptures. I can't see when you do that.") Baylee continued reading aloud without me and read about 5 verses all on her own. AWESOME.

When Rigby left for preschool the rest of the kids played for a few minutes. When Madi went down for a nap I went in to play with Baylee and Bryce for a while and we did math with blocks. Baylee and I worked on counting by twos and I started teaching her division. I quizzed her on how to spell some of the words found on the blocks. Together we attempted to teach Bryce some colors.

Other notable learning moments today:

I started reading to Baylee from a book my mother wrote containing the history of my great, great granparents.
Through trial and error, Baylee discovered a way to keep the cord on the vacuum out of the way while she vacuumed the living room.
Rigby got his first lesson on scrubbing toilets and cleaning the bathroom.

And finally, some pictures from my cell phone....

Rigby doing his best to diligently keep the chicks safe on the way home after we first got them. :)

Playing at the park.

Oh! I have to add that when we walked across the street to the elementary school park yesterday, I asked Baylee if she missed going to school at all. Her answer said it all, "Not really. I like spending time with my family better."

More Chicks

2011-03-08T07:41:00.000-08:00

I never posted photos of the other chicks we got. We have a 6 total. They're about 1 week old now. At 6 weeks we can put them outside but until then they are in our front room/my office. The kids still ADORE them and hold them every day. Madi has to be watched like a hawk because she'll tip the box over in a second if you don't catch her in time. She loves watching the chicks and SO wants to squeeze them. It's a good thing they're getting a little bigger and stronger every day. Hopefully they'll survive our children. :)

Chicks: Day 1

2011-03-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

We decided to try our hand at something new and raise some chickens! We're stoked, the kids are delighted, and so far the chicks seem comfy. We picked up two chicks from IFA tonight and my sister Jenny will bring down 3 more for us tomorrow. Here are portraits of our first two chicks:

I have achieved the impossible and I'm not done doing it

2011-03-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

*sigh*

At some point last night, while I was lying in bed listening to Madi cry and trying to work up the energy to climb out of bed and feed her, I realized I had done something I once thought was impossible. Several times in the past I remember thinking that I was so grateful the newborn stage only lasts a few weeks (before they start giving you 4-6 hour breaks between feedings night) because I just knew that it would be physically impossible for me to function any longer on a schedule like that. The newborn stage was always a blur and I was always amazed that I survived it in one piece, and that my house eventually recovered a bit. But then my babies always started sleeping through the night when they were about 4 months old. Well, I have now been feeding Madi every 2-3 hours almost every night for nearly 12 months. I have no idea how I'm functioning but most days I feel pretty good. Sometimes it really hits me hard though. Clint can attest that on more than one occasion I may have cried and resolutely determined that I cannot do this any longer. Then I sit on the bed and wait for her to stop crying. I don't think I've ever made it longer than 5 minutes before I give in and go nurse her again. I set a goal to nurse Madi at least for 1 year but wanted to go longer than that if possible. The only times I think about quitting is in the middle of the night, when I'm blind and dizzy with exhaustion. But then I think, if I quit then what would I do in the night when she wakes up? I'd have to go downstairs and get her a bottle of milk... and she probably wouldn't even drink it and I'd have to nurse her again anyway. It's the simplest solution, easier for everyone. It's fast and ready-made and it's pretty much the only thing she'll drink more than an couple ounces of. When she's sick she won't even eat, she'll just nurse. I don't think I can even dream on quitting until she's sleeping through the night because it just won't work. I tried making her drink a bottle of water in the night once. Oh that made her mad! I've never had a baby that didn't sleep and I've never had a baby this addicted to nursing. Has anyone else? When did your baby sleep through the night? I talked to another mother a few weeks ago that said her babies never slept through the night until they quit nursing at age 2! Oh I'm too tired to even think about that right now.... another year of this!?

This is the most rambling blog post I've ever written. Maybe I shouldn't publish it. I suppose if you're reading it then I just did. :)

February Update

2011-02-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

On Valentine's Day, Rigby turned 5! He got an awesome kite from Grandpa Ivan (which we haven't quite figured out how to fly yet) and a remote control four-wheeler which he broke after repeatedly tossing it down the slide at the park the very next day. He's totally 5.

Madi is now on her third round of antibiotics for persistent ear infections. The poor thing has had two ear infections for at least 3 months. While I'm not the one with the ear infections so I shouldn't complain, she's also kept me up a lot of the night for those 3 months. She's still going strong too. Every 2 or 3 hours and sometimes more. She also had some sort of bug that gave her a fever for a few days and a lovely rash too! Here she is sporting her rash.

Somewhere in the past two weeks we finished Little House on the Prairie and started The Trumpet of the Swan. Today we finished it! That was the fastest we've read through a book yet. Baylee really liked this one. We'll start a new read-aloud tomorrow.

Baylee is AMAZING with Madalyn. Those two are inseparable, really, and Baylee takes Madi with her all around the house. When Madi has to take a nap Baylee tells her she will miss her. She and Madi share a room and before I can wake up and get Madi out of her crib in the morning Baylee has already done it. She ADORES Madi. I never knew a 6 year old could be so attached to a baby. It's beautiful to watch them together. Baylee will pause any game she's playing or drop any project the second she hears Madi fuss and will go pick her up and make her happy somehow. She even picks up Bryce sometimes, which is impressive since he's so big!

I remember when Baylee was going to public school one of the things I heard her tell Rigby multiple times was how lucky he was that he got to see Madi so much because he was home and she had to go away to school. It's been so heartwarming to see her relationship with both Bryce and Madi blossom since she's been home with us. Bryce has grown to admire her so much more as well, and often wakes up from his nap calling "Bay-ee". I've been surprised at how well they play together even though there is a 3 1/2 year gap between them.

This morning Baylee fed Madi her breakfast while I read out loud. Then she helped me wash the dishes and give Madi a bath in the kitchen sink.

Baylee carries Madi ALL THE TIME. I don't know how she does it but she is strong. I seriously want to frame this picture. I love my girls!!

Not Your Grandmother's Cloth Diapers

2011-02-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

An article I wrote about cloth diapers just got published on utahmomclick.com! Sweet! I feel famous. :)

She's Crawling!

2011-02-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

Madi decided to take her first crawling paces last night. She was hanging out in our bedroom and giddily rolling and kicking about while Clint and I watched TV and the other children were sleeping. Clint asked me if I thought she would crawl before she turned one (because Bryce didn't!) and I said, "Oh ya, give it a couple more weeks." Just minutes later she got up on all fours and decided to try it! She's still hesitant about it and her record so far is about 2 feet. I think she hasn't realized the possibilities of her new found power yet.

I must add a quick note. From the appearance of many of the pictures on my blog you may be lead to believe that Bryce frequently roams pant-less. If you have noticed this pattern in my photos let me assure you, this is absolutely accurate. I don't know if it's that I am so lazy that I seldom put his pants back on after a diaper change, or because I love to see his fluffy cloth diapered bum. Probably a little of both. :)

Motherhood Video

2011-02-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

I found this video on a friend's blog today. Made me cry! Moms, watch it. It's worth your time. Very encouraging!

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership With God

An Even Bigger Decision

2011-02-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

Here is an excerpt from a journal entry I wrote on Sunday, January 23, 2011:

"I was able to attend Relief Society today for the last 30 minutes. The lesson was on following the promptings of the spirit and trusting the Lord. Many women shared stories about times where they felt strongly that the Lord wanted them to do a certain thing and they struggled with the decision because it wasn’t exactly what they had wanted or because it was a difficult thing to do. One woman mentioned that when the spirit is guiding you to do one thing that Satan will do everything in his power to convince you otherwise, to make you feel inadequate, to make you question that validity of that prompting. When that happens you need to go back to that time where you first felt the prompting and remember how you felt and how in order to assure yourself that what you are doing is right. The spirit was so strong. I felt impressed that this applied to my decision to home school. Sometimes I feel so good about it and sometimes I feel incredibly inadequate and overwhelmed at the enormity of the responsibility that would be placed on my shoulders. I can quickly get discouraged if I listen to these feelings. But I remember distinctly one morning while Baylee, Rigby and I were having an opening prayer at the beginning of our school day at home. I was saying the prayer and as I looked around at my little children I was flooded with warmth and a knowledge that what we were doing here, in our front room, was a wonderful thing. I was impressed with a thought that as long as we invited the spirit in this way, every day at our home school would be productive and beneficial for the mental and spiritual progression of us all. And in that moment I thought, “How could I stop doing such a good thing?” I believe this is that moment where I received my answer. It came upon me suddenly when I wasn’t searching for it. Weeks later, I decided I needed to make a decision about whether to home school full time or not and started praying for guidance, not realizing until today that I had already received my answer. It is amazing to me how subtle the spirit can be, yet how powerful.

I remember when I first prayed to know if Clint was the man I should marry. I felt peace and that same warm feeling. Then I was faced with telling my family and friends that I had decided to marry a man I had met only weeks before and they couldn’t understand. They questioned my decision and I stood firm. But there were a few nights where I psyched myself out and started doubting myself. It was on one of those nights that I prayed for another confirmation that marrying Clint was the right thing to do when I received an answer that surprised me. I was impressed that I did not need another confirmation from the spirit because I had already been told once and I needed to remember that feeling and not doubt its validity. I never questioned it again after that night and to this day (nearly 8 years later!) I have never questioned my decision. As far as I’m concerned I now have concrete proof that my decision to marry Clint was a good one. :)

Remembering this experience confirmed to me that what this woman in Relief Society said was true, that we need to remember that moment where we first felt the prompting or the confirmation and not lose sight of what the Lord wants us to do. So I knew for sure that I felt like home schooling would be a good thing for our family but I knew I couldn’t make the decision on my own and I would need Clint’s full support if I were going to succeed. I’ve been trying to talk to him about it for a few days but it’s always been late at night and he had never been able to put all his energy towards thinking about it. So today after church we looked up some articles together on the computer and he did some reading about home schooling. We had a long and wonderful discussion about what we would like to achieve through home schooling. He had some feelings about things we should incorporate in their schooling as they get older and he also mentioned that he would really like to participate in teaching them as much as he can. He works during the days but he would like me to reserve some time in the evenings for him to give lessons on mechanics, tools, and woodworking, etc. He said that as he thought back to the things he learned growing up and the things he uses now, as an adult, the most important things he learned were at home. As we talked it became apparent that we both felt like there were so many advantages we would have as a home schooling family and so many opportunities our children could have that they likely would not have if they were in school all day every day. So we decided to do it!

I know that I will have many people ask me why we’re home schooling our children and I wanted to be prepared to explain myself to them and I also wanted something to look at on those difficult days as a reminder of why we made this decision. So we made a list:

So our children can learn from experiences—from doing things, not just form worksheets.
So we can teach with the spirit and by the spirit to achieve a completely customized education for each child.
So we can incorporate religion and gospel principles in daily education
So we can nurture their imaginations, innate curiosities and self-image.
We believe that children learn better in a comfortable environment without peer pressure.
We want to strengthen our family relationships.

After we made the decision we had a prayer together. Baylee wanted to join us for the prayer and we asked Heavenly Father to help us to know if the decision we’d made was the right one for our family. After the prayer everyone sort of voted about it. We asked Baylee if she felt like she’d like to be home schooled full time and she said she would. Clint and I both still felt good about our decision too."

I got my affidavit turned in to the school district the very next day and got it back two days later. Then I informed the principal and Baylee's teacher of my decision through email. They weren't very happy with me but I can't let it bother me because they don't understand. They've been trained to teach one way and that's to an entire classroom of children tucked neatly in their desks. They can't imagine me doing everything they do at school but on my own at home. That's because I'm won't! Meaning our home school environment will be loose and free. We will have some structure for core subjects but have the freedom to stop the structure and learn something else whenever their curiosity desires. I'm not going to be strict about them learning exactly what the school district outlines for the year because I believe children learn at different paces in difference subjects. I don't believe there is anything magic about the schedule the public school system has created other than the fact that it organizes the education of the masses to make it possible to move large groups of children through the system at once. My kids don't need that at home. I believe that as they are given the freedom to explore their surroundings and are constantly stimulated with new ideas and experiences they will blossom and learn more efficiently and of their own accord, without the need to listen to lectures and take tests. I hope to distill in them a love of learning for the sake of discovery... learning should be part of every day life, not work that needs to be done in order to pass a test and move on, only to forget the majority of the knowledge.

Last Friday was Baylee's last day of public school. She was extremely excited but I was afraid once the reality of it hit (the reality that she would not return to her class and be with those same children and see her teacher every day) that she would be sad. That was not the case! I was glad. They made her a goodbye book filled with pictures and notes from each of her class members. When she brought it home to show me she did mention that she would miss a girl named Hayley in her class but that was all. We've now had 3 full days of homeschooling and it feels so good. After experiencing Baylee being gone all day every day and feeling like she was becoming a stranger to me at the age of 6, this is so wonderful! She's so happy to be home too.

Rigby is still in preschool 3 mornings a week and he's doing very well there. His class has only 4 students in it and they do pretty much nothing but educational art and play. It's a very relaxed environment and it's perfect. I've been absolutely amazed at what he's learned this year.

Today we took a field trip to Glass Images in Provo where my mother is having her stained glass windows made for the new home they're building in Springville. Baylee got to see the glass pieces laid out on top of the printed pattern on the table and saw several finished stained glass windows. We talked about how the pieces would be put together like a puzzle and she was thrilled when I told her that the men making the windows were artists because she says she wants to be an artist too. When we got home we made our own stained glass window out of tissue paper and wax paper. Ironing the wax paper together didn't work as well as I remembered it working when I was a kid, maybe it was the brand I had. It didn't feel very waxy. Anyway, here's our finished product! She wants to hang it in her bedroom window so she can see the light shine through it.

Our new read-aloud book is Little House on the Prairie. We're about half way through it now. Both Baylee and Rigby enjoy coloring while I read to them.

Today she got curious and picked up a children's dictionary I recently purchased and started flipping through the pages and even reading some of it when there was an interested picture. We read together the difficult parts. She learned a little about amphibians, whirl pools, parrots, and the Great Wall of China (which she recognized from Mulan), the continents, a topographical map, the Utah and Idaho state flags, and I pointed out a few states that family members of ours live in on a map.

This photo was taken last week when we went grocery shopping. Rigby was at preschool. I find it much easier to shop without Rigby. He's constantly trying to irritate someone or knocking things off the shelf. It'll be great when he grows out of that stage! Anyway, Baylee is holding up the shopping list she wrote by herself as I dictated it to her. She helped me find everything we needed in the store and checked things off her list as we went. I discovered that's one way she is willing to write, even though she doesn't want to write in her journal right now. She also writes in a phonics workbook and a math workbook so she is writing something.

Money and Madi

2011-01-26T20:19:00.000-08:00

When I first decided to take Baylee out of school part time I went to the dollar store to see what educational items I could find. There were so many things! I was shocked. These peel-off window stickers were one of my finds that we finally broke out for the first time today. It has one of each coin and one of each bill along with cent and dollar amounts to match them up with. Baylee thought this was a fun new "decoration" for our window.

I had to snap pictures when I saw Madi playing with Clint's boots because they're as big as she is!!

Madi has recently started rolling over to sleep on her tummy. So cute.

And she really wants to crawl but she just can't quite figure it out yet. She's SO close!

Reach!

Make-Believe Math

2011-01-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

So I had a fun idea for Baylee and I today. She had her first money counting lesson while we played "store". She was the shopkeeper first. She set out some toys and made up some prices...

Then I (the customer) came along with real money and bought toys from her and then we switched roles. She had so much fun. Next time she wants her barbies to be the shopkeeper and customer. :)

For art today we did math too. We counted some random items and made a graph. This was (as far as I know) her first time using a ruler as well as making a graph. Those are navy beans glued to the paper in case you were wondering. We use those occasionally to count with.

The Latest Addition to the Garner Family

2011-01-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

No. I'm not pregnant. Haha!

Not even a funny joke.

Okay, here they are!

Stripe and Gilbert

Stripe

Gilbert

Their happy home. (at least we hope it's not too bad)

We're hoping we have a male and female but it's too soon to tell. We'd love to have hundreds of little fish babies. If that happens we'll need to find them a new home as they grow but it will be amazing to watch them parent their fry. Getting fish was originally my idea. I was thinking it would be a great experience as part of our home school for the kids. I was surprised that Clint went along with it! Not only did he go along with it but he's more excited about them than anyone and trying for fish babies was his idea entirely. This could quickly become his new hobby.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

2011-01-20T19:28:00.000-08:00

This has been my first attempt at making my own liquid detergent. I read several recipes online and decided on my own concoction to try. It's been a couple weeks and so far it's worked well. Here's what I used:

1 bar Fels-Naptha soap (I found this at my local grocery store in the laundry isle. You can also use Zote, Octagon, or Castile soap)

1 C. washing soda (NOT baking soda)

1 C. borax

1 C. oxygen cleaning powder (generic oxyclean)

1 5-gallon bucket

First you grate your soap as fine as possible.

Here's what my grated soap looked like:

Then you fill a pot with 4 cups of hot tap water and put it on the stove on medium to medium high heat and add your grated soap. Keep stirring until all of the soap is dissolved and there are no chunks.

All dissolved! Total cooking time was 12 minutes.

Now take your 5 gallon bucket and put about another 4 cups of hot tap water in it. Dump your dissolved soap from the pot into the bucket and stir. Add your washing soda, borax, and oxygen powder and stir until dissolved.

Now fill the rest of the bucket with hot tap water. Cover (to keep your kids safe) and let it sit overnight to cool.

Here is what it looked like the next morning:

I filled a smaller, more manageable container to dispense the soap from. Ideally you would use an old detergent bottle but since I didn't have one I used a gallon apple juice container. Stir/shake it before every use because it sets up after sitting for a while. Use 1/2 C. per load.

What's the cost?

Fels-Naptha soap: $1.79
Washing Soda: $3.79 (we used about $.54 worth)
Borax: $5.00 (we used about $.56 worth)
Oxygen Cleaning Powder: $1.00 (we used $.50 worth)

Total for this batch of detergent: $3.39
How many loads will I get out of this batch? 160 loads

Cost per load: about $.02

Cost per load of Kirkland (Costco) detergent: about $.13
Cost per load of Tide: about $.47

Assuming I do 2 loads of laundry a day for 1 year I would spend...
$343.10 on Tide
$94.90 on generic Kirkland detergent
$14.60 on homemade detergent

So I save $328.50 compared to Tide and $80.30 compared to generic detergent.

Make-A-Mix

2011-01-20T16:19:00.000-08:00

I recently acquired a copy of a cookbook written by my aunt (and two other women) years ago

called "Make-A-Mix". The first section of the book is all recipes for mixes that you can store and use for several different recipes, shortening your prep work with TONS of meals. The second section is full of recipes to make from these mixes. My first experiments from the book have gone over very well and tasted delicious! I want to make the chicken mix to store in the freezer next. Way to go Aunt Nevada! Thanks for the book.

Homeschooling Fun

2011-01-16T19:41:00.000-08:00

I remember playing with these Discover Toys "Think It Through" tiles as a kid. They were insanely expensive through the Discovery Toys site so I snatched some of ebay. My kids love it! It comes with several reading, math and logic books at varying levels that you can choose from. You match up the tiles with the correct answer and once you have answered all the questions you flip the tiles over to reveal that pattern on the back. (see the second image) If your shape looks just like the answer key shown then you know you got all the questions right. It sounds difficult to explain but if you find these on ebay for a good price I'd snatch them up if I were you!

Last week Baylee and I did some watercolor art. We painted our own "Snowmen at Night" and sprinkled salt on the background to make it look like it was snowing. We had lots of fun! Baylee lives for anything art.

The following was written on 1/10/11

I've been struggling to make Baylee happily write in her daily journal. No matter what I say, she is NOT excited about it. She always used to say she didn't know what to write so I made her a journal jar with questions in it that she could draw from and write about. That worked for a few days and then we were back to the moping and pouting at journal time. It was like pulling teeth and it took f o r e v e r ! So I sent a plea out on a forum of other homeschooling mommies asking for advice. Among other things they mentioned that learning at this age should be mostly play and my job is to help distill in her a love for learning, not make her dread it! This is where the personalized attention of a mother at home can make all the difference. They suggested I allow her to illustrate a picture (always her favorite thing to do) and ask her to tell me what she'd like to say while I write it down. She LOVED it. Once she knew I would write for her she asked to do her journal first thing today. What a difference! She still writes in her workbooks and often writes little notes to her friends on her drawings but this way she learns to express herself through words and storytelling. Eventually, as it gets easier for her, she'll want to write it herself but as long as she prefers it, this is what we'll do! So that's two homeschooling breakthroughs for me now. Here's the first one.

P.S. Baylee is still loving to read and progressing rapidly ever since I stopped making her go hungry! :)

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The following was written on 1/13/11

We had our second piano lesson today. I didn't plan to start that but I play it every morning while we sing our opening song and she seemed interested on Tuesday so I taught her where middle C was and that there are 7 notes that repeat themselves all up and down the piano. She can pick out A, B, C, D, E, F, and G all along the piano. Today I taught her first, second, third, fourth, and fifth fingers and I asked her to show me where all the notes were again and she knew them all! I'm excited to be teaching her music and so impressed with how she caught on that much with one lesson.

___________________________________________________

Last Friday, the 14th, the kids and I went to our first homeschooling playgroup at someone's home. It was a blast! 14 families showed up!! I met some amazing and extremely friendly women. I didn't see my three older children the entire time because they found friends and places to play and were too busy having fun to need me. I can't explain the energy that was present, only that every one of those women reached out to me as the newby and I never felt awkward for one second. I felt right at home. They all listened and nobody pushed any opinions on me about what I should be doing with my kids' education but were happy to answer questions and offer any information that might help me when I asked. I look forward to many more playgroups and other homeschooling activities ahead and many awesome friendships!

The Holidays

2011-01-13T12:58:00.000-08:00

I didn't take very many pictures this year because most of Christmas morning is on video. I'd share the video but it's way too long and I don't have time to edit it right now. These pictures were taken on Christmas eve when my parents came over to bring us gifts. Madi was more interested in eating her present than playing with it.

Bryce was still hesitant to rip the wrapping paper this year.

This face shows perfectly how much Rigby loves this gift. He's obsessed with these Magformer toys that my parents have at their house, now he has his own... and there are wheels!

Baylee's easy bake oven, which we spent 30 minutes baking two bites worth of cake in that night. I so sneakily put it away at the back of the cupboard, hoping it will be a long time before she remembers it and asks to do that again!

Okay, now this is Christmas morning after most of the gifts have been opened and I ran out of recording time on the video camera.

Bryce got this singing/dancing Elmo and he also got a package of Elmo underwear which he was so excited about! Come to find out he was excited because he thought the Elmo underwear was for ELMO! And apparently underwear is worn on the head.

Bryce was so content with the treats in his stocking and his Elmo that he I couldn't convince him to open his last few gifts. Some here clothes so I opened them for him but the two gifts from Santa I just put away for next year. Can't beat that! :)

Baylee had been asking for a super sized lolli-pop for a long time. She finally got it!

Bryce's potty watch which also bombed after day one. When he's ready it will be useful. I put it away until then, along with the Elmo underwear.

My family has a tradition where we get together at my parents' house for a New Years Eve party to play games and eat way too much food. The Wii room is occupied by some men (including Clint... there was a hunting game this year) and the teenagers most of the night while board games are played in the living room. The dining room is reserved for the annual "Who Want to be a Hundred-Dollar-Air" game my dad hosts with real money. Everybody does their best but as far as I know no one has ever gone home with more than about $50. I average around $7 every year.

Oh ya, and at midnight everyone in the family who's a lunatic runs out the front door, to the front fence and back again... in bare feet!!! I haven't been part of this group since I became a Mommy. I either chickened out or got very smart. You decide.

Here are the party stats from my mom:

"Nothing unusual except the temperature which was hovering near zero degrees farenheit. It was cozy in the house - 36 partiers. Only one child threw up. Average winnings per player in the "So You Want to be a Millionaire Game" were $15.

Eighteen were brave/crazy enough at midnight to run barefoot through knee-deep (for short people) snow/ice to the fence at the road and back. Three of those fell/were tackled. Most still proudly sport bloody scabs where ice shards pierced their ankles and shins. One child would have run had her (wise) mother allowed it.

Photo of the front yard year-end race track is attached."

P.S. The child who threw up was mine! Poor Bryce was quarantined to my parents' room watching cartoons until bed time. He didn't seem to mind much though.

Such a boy

2011-01-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

I let Rigby sit at the desk and color while Baylee and I did school this morning. Now he's coloring boogers running out of the Incredible Hulk's nose and dripping all the way down to his waist "because he's bad so he never wipes it." Oh my.

And I recently confiscated the camera he got for Christmas because he was taking pictures of his privates.

About 2 weeks ago he was eating lunch when he held a small ball to his chest and danced around saying, "Look, I have a round, now I can feed babies!"

Sometimes he shouts "Poopy diapers!" just for fun and giggles at the pure hilarity of it.

That's my boy! I have a sinking feeling this is only the beginning...

World's Greatest Klondike Sled

2010-12-30T21:00:00.000-08:00

I've never been ~~very~~ excited about a Klondike sled before. I've also never been involved in making one. Okay, so I didn't make it, I just painted it! Clint painted the awesome flames and the background (sky and mountains). Clint's scout group calls themselves the turtles so Clint found an awesome image of a turtle online. The background really makes the turtle, Honey.

It was so much fun to paint again!

I Miss This!

2010-12-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

We've been cleaning out our storage room in the basement and I went through all my old art supplies and things. I found lots of old treasures I've been keeping. Many of them got thrown away now but I wanted to share a few. It made me to sad to remember how much time I used to spend painting and drawing and how much I love doing that! Oh well, someday I'll have this kind of time again.

Art from high school:

My neice, Hannah

Hannah again.

Hannah and Haley

Same image, different drawing

My friend Jesse Thueson

Purely fictional :)

My keys in high school, always with a chapstick attached. :)

College:
I actually started this one in high school and finished it in college.

I used to doodle like crazy!

Pencil studies

A book I made and bound myself. This is the reason we moved to Utah. There was a book binding class offered at BYU in Provo that wasn't offered at BYU Idaho so I applied to Provo and got a scholarship. I often wonder where we would have ended up if I hadn't discovered this class and asked Clint to transfer to UVSC. We're very happy here but I'm sure our life would have taken a very different road if we hadn't moved down here. It's a sketch book. It's still empty. I never wanted to ruin it with a bad sketch.

Funny Boys

2010-12-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

My boys are so crazy. After tucking them in for the 3rd time because they were playing so wildly last night Clint said, "Who's idea was it to put two boys in a room together?"

Bryce is so funny at bedtime. He insists on having every blanket he can find ontop of him and half the toys in his room end up in bed with him too. Then he has to have a book of his choosing (you can't force an particular book on him) and a sippy cup full of water. Even if the cup was already full when he climbs into bed he insists that I go fill it up again just to follow our routine. Then kisses and hugs for Mommy and Daddy and a loud "Goonite. Mwah!" shout (for extra kisses to Mom and Dad) while we're leaving the room.

Here's a snapshot of Bryce with all his blankets at nap time today.

While the dishes were drying on the counter today Rigby discovered his awesomely distorted reflection in a bowl.

Madi Moo Photos

2010-12-13T12:36:00.000-08:00

Isn't she a doll? The poor girl is so sick today. Stuffy nose and fever and lots of tears. Obviously these photos were not taken today.

I love this one!

We had a little breakthrough with homeschooling last Friday. Baylee has been grumpy about reading lately. She loves to hear ME read but it's so much work for her to read and she gets frustrated and throws up her arms in exasperation whenever she can't read a word. Many times they're words she knows but she isn't trying very hard or thinking clearly enough to get it.

So here's where I had a breakthrough: We eat breakfast around 8:30 and by 10:00 she's asking if it's lunch time yet. I've given her snacks lately but I've made her wait longer in the past before getting a snack. Today she started asking for lunch at 10:00 and I told her "not yet" and asked her to sit down and read to me. She was sad and grumpy and not thinking clearly (you'd think it would be obvious what to do but it didn't occur to me at the time). Finally I asked her what she wanted me to do to make her happy to read. She told me she wanted a snack. Duh Katie! So I got her some crackers and she energetically read through several "Dick and Jane" books and even giggled out loud at the humorous parts while she nibbled at her crackers.

From now on I will get her snacks when she asks and not try to force her to work through her hunger just a little bit longer. It's amazing how much a little hunger can affect a child's brain. I'm learning! Now I just need to figure out how to get her more motivated about writing in her journal. She still struggles with that because she insists she doesn't know what to write and everything I suggest she turns down. Maybe I'll have another ah-ha moment with that soon too.

Just our cute Bryce. I had the camera out so I snapped some photos. He's pretty attached to this "Batmat" figurine lately.

Read-Aloud

2010-12-07T23:34:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading aloud to Baylee for over an hour. She was visibly tired but still wanted me to read just one more chapter. That's so fun and rewarding! I have been reading The Phantom Tollbooth to both Baylee and Rigby for the last couple weeks but Rigby wasn't very obedient tonight and so he had to go to bed and miss out on the story. This book is incredibly clever which makes it enjoyable for me but has a story that keeps the children's interest as well. I've been surprised at how much Baylee is absorbing from the story and she's learned SO MANY new words.

Reading aloud to my own children brings back fond memories of my father reading to my siblings and me at night when I was a child. I know there are so many more books than I remember but, off the top of my head, I know that we read the entire Work and the Glory series, All Creatures Great and Small, The Education of Little Tree, Bridge to Terabithia, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Diary of Anne Frank and then the first few Harry Potter books before I left for college. He still read aloud to me even though I was a teenager, and I still loved it! I remember all of us gathering around on the floor with pillows and I would always bring paper to draw on while I listened. My dad is such a great reader. He always enunciated so well and had unique voices for every character. I've tried to do the same with this book and I've practically lost my voice tonight because we read so long. Some voices are very straining on my vocal chords. :) I'm just trying to make it as fun as my father did for me.

We had our first homeschool fieldtrip today. We went to the Hale Center Theatre in Orem and watched the children's version of "A Christmas Carol" play. It was put on entirely by children ages 5-15 and it was amazing! My kids loved it. Although they got a little scared during parts, they were completely engrossed in the drama. They were sorely disappointed that there wasn't an intermission like I'd told them there would be, so we couldn't buy treats. I guess the children's version is only one hour long so there was no intermission. We stopped at Arctic Circle for ice cream cones instead. That may have been the highlight of the trip for them.

We're still here!

2010-11-30T19:51:00.000-08:00

It's high time for another update about home schooling, I wouldn't want you all to think homeschooling isn't going well anymore or that I've given up. On the contrary! I've just been crazy busy. Although I do understand already what these other homeschooling moms were talking about when they said "You will have good days where you get a lot accomplished and other days when you don't." There have been two days so far where Baylee has come to the table unmotivated and tired. The first time this happened she also slept in, which lead me to believe she wasn't feeling very well. Yesterday was another one of those days, however, and I think it was a combination of Thanksgiving break and an imminent growth spurt (which is causing her to be a bottomless pit of hunger). Thankfully we could stop working and go get a snack whenever we wanted. Who can do that in public school? :) Baylee didn't want to write in her journal yetserday. "Why do I have to write in my journal every day? You don't even write in a journal," she said. Luckily I had my journal on the shelf right by us and I took it down to prove to her that I do keep a journal! She was shocked. I flipped it open and landed right on a letter I had written to her when she was 2 years old. Coincidence? I think not. I read it to her. She giggled and grinned through the whole thing. Here's what it said:

Baylee - August 2006 - Age 2

August 28, 2006

Dear Baylee,

I've been meaning to sit down and write you a letter for a few days now and haven't. I've forgotten most of what I wanted to say now but I thought it best to write anyway. You have gone five nights without your binkie now. Tonight is your sixth. It's been easier than I thought it would be but far from easy. You were so attached to it. I started warning you in advance, "In two days no more binkie." At first you would be upset and say, "No, no, no!" but after a day of that you'd nod your head and say, "Uh-huh" whenever I brought it up. "You're going to be a big girl now," I'd say. "Big GIRL!" you'd repeat back to me. Now it takes you a long time to go to sleep. We usually go through a cycle of getting a drink of water ("watty" you call it) and praying. More drinks, a story and a song, then another drink or two before you'll lay down. You're a little stinker, asking for water over and over again, just to delay bedtime. It's so cute.

You're still in the Finding Nemo stage, although it's easing up. For about a month all you'd want morning, noon and night was Nemo (or "Elmo" as you say it). You sit on our bed and watch it as many times a day as I'll let you.

You love to give frequent but brief hugs. You often hug my leg and say "aww..." and then run away. When Dad comes home you run down the hall and shout "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" at the top of your lungs. He's so excited for his hug but it only lasts a second before you run away again. Not to worry, you're usually back every minute or so for another Daddy hug, and then Mommy gets a turn too.

Observing your behavior with other children is interesting. You're timid and reserved, usually. You watch other kids very carefully and you usually don't complain too much. if they steal your toy, you just stare at them. When we come back home or when the other children are gone I often see or hear you mimic them.

You're very intrigued by drawing lately. I bought you bath crayons that you insist on using even when it's me taking a bath. You stand outside the tub and reach your arm in to color on the walls. I couldn't dream of bathing alone. Locking you out of the bathroom, or any room, throws you into hysterics. You also draw with your magna-doodle and you have a tub of sidewalk chalk you use outside. You love finding puddles to sit by and color in. Unfortunately, you decided to test out coloring on the walls in permanent marker a couple of weeks ago at my Grandma Hulse's new house in Springville; on the day she was moving in no less!

You love your dolls. You like feeding them bottles while I feed Rigby. You've started wanting to feed Rigby yourself lately. You notice when he cries and you try to pacify him with a binkie or bottle. Sometimes you even say "Shh..." as you do it. If Rigby's not up when you wake up in the morning you always ask about him. "Reeby, where are you?" Sometimes when you watch a movie you'll pat the floor or bed beside where you're sitting and say, "Reeby, sit down." You're already starting to look out for him, sometimes by making sure I don't forget him when we leave the house. You tell me to get him in his carseat and then you say, "Reeby, 'mon. Let's go!"

You're just so big. I don't think I'm ready for it. I want you to know that I'm doing my best. I know I've made mistakes, and I always will, but I pray every night to be worthy of Heavenly Father's guidance for me as your mother. I want you to have the best life possible. I love you so much. Don't ever forget that. My love for you will never change, no matter what. Remember that.

Love, Mom"

I'm so glad I wrote that down! I've already forgotten what she was like back then. It's amazing that so many of her personality traits were already obvious at that age. She is still the most caring and nurturing child. She doesn't just help when she's asked, she pays attention and sooths Madalyn and Bryce when they whine or cry. I'm amazed at her innate ability to do this. There's just nobody like my sweet Baylee! I'm a lucky mom.

____________________________________________

We're finally covered in snow here. The sun was so nice while it lasted. I've never been a fan of snow and ice. I'm determined not to be a party pooper this year and to bundle the kids up whenever they ask to go out and play. I usually say "no" because of the innevitable pile of wet, snowy boots, coats, gloves, and hats that will following usually 10 minutes later but this year I spent the money to get proper winter gear for all of them so they can stay out longer without freezing their beehinds off! So far this has worked out well. :)

Bryce sharing his snow snack with Madi

We have the perfect little bump in our front yard to sled down. Who knew?

Day 2

2010-11-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

In the past, Baylee hasn't been very excited about reading. It's just a lot of work to her. Her teacher says she's an "average" reader. She struggles, not because she doesn't have the ability but because by the time she gets home from school she's too tired to think clearly and has no patience left for reading with me. Thus, she has been getting very little one-on-one (/productive) learning done. She loves to be read TO but if I ask her to read even just one word her reasponse is, "Why do I have to?"

She has loved cuddling up and reading to me on the couch these past two mornings, while her mind is fresh and rested, and I can already see improvement. I went to the library today and got a whole stack of books for Baylee. When she got home from school today I showed her the stack of books that she could read all by herself. I've never seen her face light up so much for READING! She sat down right then and read 3 of them outloud to Madi and me. She offered to read them to Bryce at bedtime tonight.

She also used a word in her journal entry today that I taught her to spell yesterday. It's rewarding to see that she is progressing already!

Homeschooling Day 1

2010-11-15T12:36:00.000-08:00

Here's my journal entry for today:

"Today is our first day of part-time homeschooling. It's going well! We started the day out by singing a primary song and saying a prayer. Baylee and Rigby worked in their "Explode the Code" workbooks for nearly 45 minutes because they were so excited about them. They probably would have done more in those but I decided to move us on to the next thing so they didn't get tired. Rigby is now coloring and Baylee in writing her journal entry for the day. I thought I'd take the opportunity to write while Baylee is. This could be a good thing for me to write a short journal entry every day that I can while she writes. So far this has felt so natural and nearly effortless because it's just an extension the time we spend together, except I planned to make it educational. I try to make a lot of our time together educational anyway so this is not much different.

It was SO NICE not to have to pack a lunch for Baylee, bundle her up and send her out in the cold in time for school. We actually started school at 8:45 this morning (instead of 9:00) because they were all ready to go!

Bryce has been quietly playing on the floor while we work and Madi is taking her morning nap. I think we are going to LOVE school at home!"

I have made a daily schedule for us and Baylee gets to check each item off as we go. The last square says "Your Choice". When we'd finished everything else and Baylee read the last square she immediately shouted, "ART!" I love how excited she is about art and she really has a talent for it. She has art only once or twice a week at public school and she tells me how sad she is about that all the time. In her words, "We only got to paint ONE time the WHOLE year so far!" So art is something we will be doing a lot of for her. She's ecstatic!

We set a timer for 30 minutes while Baylee read her McComber Readers books. This is a set of reading books and corresponding workbooks that I already owned because I illustrated just a few of the books in the set. It's coming in handy now!

A few of my illustrations...

Baylee's journal entry for today:

(It was the first day of school at home. We are having so much...)

(...fun. We wrote in our dictations and our journal so far. So far I'm having so so so so much fun!)

Our Big Decision

2010-11-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

The past 6 days have been full of deep thinking and decision making. For a long time I have had a number of concerns which I put on the back burner, probably hoping the problems would resolve themselves with no further effort on my part. Since Baylee was an infant I have occasionally thought about homeschooling and told myself I would look into it when the time came to make a decision. I even purchased some books on the subject which I never opened, thinking I had plenty of time to make a decision. Ever since I observed the change that one year of homeschooling had on my sister Deidre's five young children almost six years ago, I've known that it can be a wonderful, uplifting experience for everyone involved. But when the time came for my daughter to begin school I decided since public school was the easiest option we would give it a try and if there was a problem then we would seriously look into homeschooling.

As I was canning apple pie-filling with my sister Jenny last Tuesday I began telling her my concerns about how school was affecting Baylee negatively. I starting listing all the reasons I believed homeschooling her would be a good option for us. Jenny was supportive and agreed that it all sounded like a great idea. All the while I thought I was just brainstorming options out loud but she surprised me by saying, "Kate, it sounds like you've already made up your mind!" That's when it hit me that maybe I had. From that point on I couldn't stop thinking about it. I started doing research to learn all I could about it. I called Deidre to ask her advice and my mother too. They were both extremely supportive. Clint took a little longer to convince but he is feeling better about it every day. We have prayed about it and feel that it is the right choice for our family right now. I asked Baylee if she would like to try it and she wholeheartedly agreed. She has a classmate who is homeschooled in the morning and then attends school after lunch every day. She wanted to do that too so that is how we will start, with part time homeschooling. We'll see where it goes from here.

Why home school?

• My daughter is not happy at school. She's 6 years old and she's not happy. Something is wrong with that. She comes home from school dragging, stressed, and tired. She's easily upset by her siblings who she normally is kind and patient with. She doesn't usually complain but it is obvious to me that she is not acting like herself and it takes her a while to wind down and act normal again. She gets sad when she finds out we've done anything fun while she was gone. She feels left out of the family when she goes to school. I have been told that this is a normal response to public school at first but "she will get used to it." I do not feel that this is healthy or necessary for her to become a happy, responsible and successful adult. I believe it is counter-productive and there is a better way for our family.

• This is the most important time to teach her about the gospel, to show her how much she is loved and how important she is as a cherished member of our family and a daughter of God. It is my duty to do everything I can to nurture and love her, to prepare her for life outside our home. I do not believe that I can do this as well when she spends more waking hours at school, under the influence of her peers, than she does at home. I have no control over what she learns there and there are still too many things I need to teach her at home.

• If all truth can be circumscribed into one great whole then it follows that teaching all subjects (math, science, art, etc.) in relation to the gospel of Jesus Christ only makes sense, and this cannot happen in a public school.

Am I qualified to teach my children?

• God gave us charge of these children and I am their mother. No one else could possibly know them better or have their best interests at heart more than I do. Assuming I am a competent person, which I am, then I believe the only attributes required to successfully teach my own children are loving them, and teaching with the Spirit of the Lord. I have carefully purchased curriculum which I feel they will enjoy and which will be readily absorbed by them. I will be there to make sure we are organized and accomplish our daily tasks, but my goal is to teach them to teach themselves. I hope for them to hunger for knowledge, to seek it out on their own and to enjoy it! If I am successful then they will succeed in everything they put their minds to in life.

I have more to do to prepare but hopefully in the next week or two we will begin our homeschooling journey and I plan to share our experience with you! I know there are many who have negative feelings toward homeschooling. Please be kind and know that we are doing all we can as parents to provide what we believe to be the best for our children. Remember that you do not know our children like we do and try not to judge.

In the words of Thumper...

Halloween Pictures

2010-11-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

Baylee the witch

Bryce as Elmo checkin' out Baylee's big hat

Gotta love homemade costumes!

Clint, he's so excited to go trick-or-treating in the rain

This gives you a good idea how many donuts my sister Deidre made for her party

They were so delicious, and I just remembered I forgot to take home some leftovers. My tummy is sad.

Madi the clown

My skinny dad holding Madi

Rigby as Wall-E, gotta love FREE homemade costumes!

Getting ready for trick-or-treating

Family Photos 2010

2010-10-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

So many pictures!

2010-10-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

I have so many pictures! I'll just explain them as they appear. Excuse the disorganization.

Clint started building a shed last month. He has done such an awesome job and has done 99% of it ALL BY HIMSELF! Such a stud.

Our neighbor Jeff Johnson came over for an hour or two to help him put up the trusses. This was the only help he's had unless you count me holding some long boards while he cut them. That hardly counts as help.

The shed as it stands today. He's got to finish it soon because when my next order of diapers comes it will be too large to fit in our basement and I'll need to put it all in the garage, so we need a shed for Clint's things that are currently in the garage. Someday I hope to need a warehouse to store all my diapers! :)

Rigby LOVES preschool. Yesterday I heard him shout back to his teacher as he ran out to the car "Goodbye, I love you!" When we get home he unloads his treasures from his backpack and proudly explains each art project to me. He is learning so much and I am extremely impressed with how much he knows! He is already writing his name and can write almost all of his letters. He's already learned what Baylee learned in kindergarten. She went to a different preschool and they didn't teach her nearly as much as Rigby is learning. I know where I'm sending the rest of my kids now!

The kids all cuddled up on our bed to watch a movie. Love them!

A few weeks ago on Monday night Clint was working later than usual and so we decided to plan our family home evening around him. We all pitched in to help clean the house and the kids each made him a card. We called it "Daddy's Home Evening".

Bryce was extremely helpful at wiping the table. He got it very clean.

"Eeew..."

Madi trying her first bite of table food, a banana. She was (and still is) NOT a fan.

Right about when Madalyn turned 6 months old she got a cold and started wheezing. All of my children have been wheezers, some more than others, but we had medication and a nebulizer ready to go at home already. So I gave her breathing treatments 5-6 times a day for 2 weeks and she was still wheezing! I finally took her in because she wasn't getting better (none of my children ever wheezed this long) and the doctor prescribed oral steroids. A couple days taking steroids finally fixed it. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come for this winter. I don't want to end up in the hospital with her like we did with Rigby at this age. That was so scary.

Can you tell she's smiling through the mask?

I started a new quilting project. This one is inspired by the annual quilt shows at the Springville Art Museum. I have been wanting to attempt this for years and am finally doing it. It's entirely done with applique and every color you see is a separate piece cut out and ironed by yours truly. Clint thinks I'm crazy. I'm having so much fun. I can't wait to get back and finish it!

She's just cute, what can I say more?

I canned salsa! This was a first for me. I think it turned out pretty well. Clint made some fresh salsa last night though and we both agree it tastes so much better fresh! Cooking it takes away so much yummy flavor.

But look how pretty the jars look...

Rigby, he's just cute lately. He's maturing and doesn't get into nearly as much trouble as he used it. What a relief.

Bryce doin' a little jig during LDS general conference. Haha! Love this little dude!

Madalyn is 7 months old today! She is a chubby and happy baby. She smiles at everyone who looks her way and chews on everything she can get her hands on. She doesn't care to look at things much, only bite them. Which is funny because she does not want to eat table food. When I try to spoon feed her she starts spitting as soon as the spoon goes in her mouth. So I cut an X in the top of a bottle nipple and tried to feed her rice cereal and baby food with a bottle. She drank a couple ounces one or two times but now she just smiles at me like this bottle is a funny joke and spits it all out! This baby just wants to nurse. I've never had a baby be so attached to nursing that they don't want to eat anything else. There was a time where she slept for 6-8 hours at night. It was fleeting. She's still waking up every 2-3 hours at night to nurse. It can be exhausting but I love how when she's sleepy she roots around like a newborn and whimpers and cries until she latches on and then her whole body goes limp like all life's problems have instantly been solved and everything is going to be just fine.

A small preview of Halloween...

School!!

2010-09-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

Baylee is in first grade now and goes to a full day of school. What an adjustment! But she's doing beautifully, as I knew she would. She loves to learn and she brags about how she has 3 recesses too. :) Rigby started preschool and is in HEAVEN. He proudly shows off his arts and crafts every day when he gets home. I can already see a slight improvement in his behavior at home after just one week of preschool. He feels big and mature and is started to act like it a little more. I love it!

7 posts in one day. Phew! All caught up.

Last fun of Summer

2010-09-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Some random summer photos left unblogged about on my camera:

Clint's Gourmet Cooking

2010-09-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I attempted to make a ham roast in the crock pot. Anyone who knows me can tell you I'm not the greatest cook but this was bad, even for me. I totally ruined it. We tossed the whole thing. It was so overcooked and disgusting smelling! So Clint kicked me out of the kitchen and made a gourmet meal with whatever we had lying around the house and in the freezer. Man, I wish Clint could be home to cook every night. It's too bad (for everyone) that I got stuck with this job most of the time. :)

My ham:

Clint's beautiful and oh-so-tasty marinated halibut with balsamic cream sauce and crab legs.

Kitchen Photos

2010-09-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

It's about time I posted some photos of the kitchen. There are still a few minor things to finish but you can get a good idea of how it's going to look. We finally got this pantry door installed (after going a few months without a door at all!) and we have yet to paint it and add the dark stain on it like the rest of the cabinetry has. Clint has a hard time getting used to the blue paint but I really love it! Am I just weird? I didn't intend it to be so blue but I think it's cheery. Clint did an amazing job on the tile back splash don't you think? I have such a handy man. :) Love you Honey!!

Spanish Fork North Park

2010-09-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

I took the kids and Baylee's friend Lily to our new park last Monday. It's AMAZING! I'm so excited to have such an awesome park so close to our home. Here are some photos I got with my cell phone while we were there.

More home improvements

2010-09-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

I got the opportunity to attend BYU Education Week for one day a couple of weeks ago, thanks to my wonderful husband who stayed home from work to be with the kids, including Madi! I wish they would let you take nursing babies but alas, they don't so I had to leave her. The poor girl (and her poor daddy) struggled a bit and she didn't like a bottle so much. Clint was sweet enough not to let on how bad it really was until I got home so I could still enjoy myself. My favorite class was taught by Marie C. Ricks about organizing your home. She was hilarious and so motivating! I have been working on putting my home in order a little at a time every since. In order to really organize I needed way more desk space. So we shopped on ksl and cragslist and look what we found!!

I am in love. Seriously. My home feels so much happier already. :)

Notice the hooks to hang the backpacks on. They're also new. It's pretty fun to get organized. I'm trying to do a little bit of something on this HUGE project every day. I've already got 3 garbage bags full of DI stuff loaded in the trunk of my van.