Family Fun Day

We decided that we really needed to take a day just to do something fun. Saturdays get so hectic with doing things around the house, meets, and soccer games. We drove to the bay area to go to Muir Woods.

 Before going in, we stuffed them full of food. When you travel with 7 people, you have to be a bit creative with funding. Muir Woods only charges for people over 15, so this was a steal of an excursion.

 Counting rings in the trees.

 They look a little hoodlum-esque here. That is a sucker in Addison's mouth, not a cigarette by the way ;)

 In the park they have volunteers who provide small information sessions. One of them found this giant banana slug. I was grossed out, but the kids thought it was amazing.

 Selfies with mom when you are 13 may not be a favorite activity.

 Then we headed over to Tiburon. It was gorgeous there!

We ate pizza (which is actually our favorite thing to do in new towns-as long as it isn't a chain) and saw a movie. I was surprised that it is cheaper to go to the movies in Tiburon than here. Most likely this is because all th ehouses are a million dollars. Who could afford the movies after that?

Halloween Frights 2014

Bailey: Fighter Pilot (a real uniform courtesy of our Home Teacher!)
Emma: A Southern Belle (or Little Bo Peep, as many thought)
Nathan: Wearwolf
Kate: Fairy
Addison: Witch

We tricked, we treated, we had a fun night. That's all I am going to say about Halloween. Time to move on down the blogging list!

Sister Missionaries in Training!

Cultural Day 2014

Kate and Addison had to dress up as a community helper for school. I am not sure exactly how this came about, but I cannot deny it is partially because of my lack of desire to put together any other costumes. I do love that they were so excited to go as a Sister missionary companionship. They write letters to Alyssa (serving in Temple Square) all the time. They think she is the most amazing thing ever, so dressing like her was a big bonus for them. Time has gone so quickly and she should be home at the end of this year. I know she will have a little cheering section ready and waiting for her.

Nathan went as Rudolph Dassler, founder of Puma. He is obsessed with anything soccer related.

Emma's assignment was to prepare a presentation as if her historical figure was running for President. She went as Sacajawea. The night before this assignment was due was a little chaotic. Because of other scheduling conflicts with our family, Emma did not have very much time to work on her homework that week. She found herself getting further and further behind and was in tears as she looked at everything she had to finish. I remember sitting there and feeling so sorry for here, even if some of her own decisions had put her in this situation. I suddenly thought about how many times in our own lives we are struggling, and look at what lies before us with little hope. We want to give up, and cannot even see any way that we can get through the trial. This is where the Savior comes in, and lifts us up and bridges that gap. Even though many times we are dealing with the consequences of our own choices and should have made better ones, we are not left behind. This was quite the stream of thoughts running through my head:) So, I looked at my poor little girl with tears streaming down her face, and I wrote her speech for the project. Now, I don't advocate doing children's homework for them, but this was different. She didn't ask for me to do that, she just looked at me with despair and asked how was she supposed to get all this done? I had her continue to work on the other assignments she had, and lifted this particular one from off her shoulders.

I know this has happened for me so many times. There are situations that work out a particular way that I know I didn't "deserve." The nice thing is about the plan of salvation, is that it isn't about what you deserve. It's about what you do with what you are given, and the atonement of Christ that makes up for the rest. 

 

Run, Oram's Run

Both Bailey and Emma have really gotten into running. Bailey has competed in school for quite a few years, and Emma is also joining the ranks of running enthusiast. There is a parent on Bailey's team who takes pictures of the team, so I was able to download some really good shots.

 Bailey has made some good friends on the team. This group of Jr. High boys also happen to be pretty fast.

 Bailey was able to medal at the Championships for Jr. High! He placed 15th.

Emma is our future track star. She is a great sprinter and I am so impressed with how hard she worked during her cross country season.

Emma is looking forward to competing for WSCA in two years. She and Bailey will most likely practice together (which makes drop off and pick up nicer!)

Funny Little Things...catching up and out of order....

Kate made a list of everyone she loves. It says a lot about Kate that the #1 person on that list is----Herself!!! Coming in a close second is our babysitter turned Sister Missionary on Temple Square, Alyssa Fluckiger. I think I should feel proud to actually be #3 and beat out any grandparents (evil laugh). Kate loves to draw and make lists of things, and write letters. Right this very second there are at least 6 envelopes addressed to various people on her bed. I found them while doing the ultimate clean out of the girl's room. Let's just say that when they get home from school today, they are not going to be happy. Although, the $1.18 I found makes me happy because I will get an ice cream cone before picking them up from school!

When watching General Conference this last weekend, the kids had a great time drawing pictured of the speakers. Nathan did a particularly good job with President Packer. I really love conference every year, and am so glad we are at the point where we don't have to worry as much about wrangling kids so we can watch it.

This was the Saturday session. Bailey had a cross country meet and Ben took him. The rest of us had a camp out in our room because the internet wasn't working so great at this point. My posts for the blog at this point are going to be so incredibly out of order but I need to get it all recorded. The kids had the greatest time in between sessions reading blog books and I realized I last printed them in 2012!!

This is one of my favorite talks from the weekend. I recently was called to be the Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward. I remember a few weeks before I got the calling, Ben told me he thinks I should be the next Gospel Doctrine teacher. I told him that was the dumbest idea ever and I would be terrified. When the Bishop and his counselor came over to extend the call, I threw a pillow at him before saying yes! (Ben, not the Bishop...just to clarify) I was sure he had something to do with it, but he didn't and I should know better of course:) It's been hard getting used to teaching every week, especially out of the Old Testament. I've been super nervous quite often and have had the occasional odd comment from a class member. But, it isn't terrible and I enjoy the preparing part. The Sunday before conference we had a lesson on sustaining the prophet. I figured with conference falling in between, we should take this Sunday and just talk about what we learned in conference. The general theme throughout was definitely following the commandments even when they are hard, and listening to the counsel of the prophets and apostles.

I have been to the pumpkin patch for so many years now on field trips. The twins finally got to go this year for their first time at MMCA. Of course I had to come...even if I am getting field tripped out. The poor twins have to do everything last in the family and I'm trying to keep up my momentum for them!
They are loving school and doing really well (Thank you TK and Mrs. Gallo!!)

This was them at the end of the day. I would say they had a good time to be this passed out. I always find it funny when they end up matching at school. It happens more days than not, and they pick out their clothes independently of one another. The teachers noticed that at school they do not seem as dependent on each other as other sets of twins that have come through. I'm glad that their twin bond isn't a problem at school, because I really don't want to have to split them into different classes.

Nathan wrote me this sweet note on my birthday this year. The big 3-5. I was super sick on that day and the boys had father and son's camp out for Church so it wasn't my favorite way to spend the day.
But, I managed to take enough cold medicine to make it to our annual girl's night out (what EKA and I do when the boys have their camp out every year). We invited my mom along and Emma was able to get her ears pierced.

Emma attempted getting her ears pierced when she turned 8 but it was short lived. She had a horrible time taking care of them. This time, she was so brave! It's harder when you know how bad it was the first time and you are still willing to try again. We had a much better experience this time around. 

This is me trying not to be dead after taking Emma to Women's Broadcast the day after my birthday. This is the second time she has been able to go since they changed the age to 8 and up. She still doesn't quite enjoy all the talks the same way I do, but she did enjoy watching me have to go up and sing in a choir of people who went to girl's camp:)

Only four left in the Primary Program for Church. Although this year they made the young men and young women sing at the end so technically Bailey had to do it this year. He wasn't thrilled :) Everyone sang and said their parts perfectly. Emma even sang in a trio and it was amazing!

This is now one of my favorite pictures of B and I. We went to a wedding for one of his coworkers. I wore a pair of clip on earrings that he found in a parking lot by his work.  For some reason he is always bringing home random things he finds on the ground. BUT, they are almost always really cool finds. So I wore these earrings and immediately got so many compliments on them. I told everyone Ben "picked them out," failing to mention that he actually just "picked them up"...off the street. One woman even asked where he got them and made him promise to tell her because she loved them. It was SO hard to contain our laughter, but I think we laughed for five minutes straight when we were alone later. I am a little afraid at who they actually belonged to before they wound up in our house. Maybe I should have sterilized them first.

We started reading the Book of Mormon together as a family almost two years ago. We told the kids that when we got through it, we would go out to dinner. They helped us stay on task for two years straight to get it read. For months, Ben teased them about which restaurant we would pick to celebrate finishing. He promised them it would be a "factory" of some kind-Cheesecake, Spaghetti or Pizza. The kids were all split on where they thought we should go.

One of my favorite Emma conversations:
Emma, after our conversation about our family history research I have been doing, was so excited to find out we have roots in the Netherlands because she has always wanted to be a "Dutch-ess." I can't make up the stuff that comes out of that girl's mouth!!

Emma modeling an outfit she put together. Ignore the paint splotches on the wall...we are repainting soon:)

 So I am not a dog person, never have been. The story of dogs in our house is quite interesting and way too long. But this dog doesn't bug me so much...and I might even like him a little. He is my serious protector as he is obsessed with me. I never have to worry about any noises when I am at home alone. He checks them out--and I mean completely surveys the inside and outside of the house. The twins saw this shirt at Target and begged me to get it.

 Enjoying his comfy spot on Emma.

Nathan decided to be a werewolf for Halloween and Gid thought he was another dog. They had a great time wrestling. 

Gid loves to eat flies. If only I could get him to eat frogs. This is what I came home to one night and had to go through the garage. I could not make myself go through the door with this thing on it!! I am TERRIFIED of frogs. 

Our wonderful dad/husband has been working super long hours lately. Sometimes we text him pictures of us at the dinner table. He was missing out on puffy(German) pancakes with cookie butter. Hey! At least we had the grapes to balance it out...

 Emma earned enough reading points to have me bring her lunch at school. Panda orange chicken was of course her choice. She was the envy of all the other kids, which I think for her might be half the fun.

 Emma is obsessed with lip gloss. At activity days a while ago they made their own, and it was probably the best day of her life.

 Kate and Addison, and their friend Katie. This year in Kindergarten, these two have been SO social. Not only that, but most of their friends are 1st graders. We have not been without a fair amount of girl

drama issues, which is SO fun....

This part of the catch up has only taken me a few months-yikes! I'm determined to get everything caught up today so I can get a new book printed soon.

Raging Parties in Advisory

On the way home from a Standards Night fireside for Church, Bailey and I discussed some of the things he will see or be exposed to as he gets older that will go against what we believe. He told me that there isn't a need to worry about it because of the school he attends. I quickly told him that means something, but doesn't exclude him from everything. His school is smaller and has a different crowds than the average public school, but it is still a school filled with teenagers who make their own choices. We then proceeded to have this conversation:

B: Well, there was that one time people were drinking alcohol in class.
Me: (jolted just a bit) People were drinking alcohol in class?!
B: It was a drink that only had 1% alcohol in it, but yes.
Me: Was this at lunch or after school?
B: Nope, in advisory.
Me: Just out in the open? Didn't the teachers say something?
B: No, the kids just did it.
Me: What exactly were they drinking that had 1% alcohol in it?
B: Vanilla extract.

Oh.My.Goodness. I kept from laughing harder than I wanted to. If halfway into 8th grade and this is the worst he has seen so far, I'll take it! We then went on to have a conversation about how kids do things to look cool but they are just being stupid. Because...vanilla extract?....They could have at least drank Nyquil or something....