At first glance of the title, I'm assume you are thinking here comes a story about one of the kids standing up for something, showing great integrity or something of the likes. I wish I had one of those.
Many may be familiar with my preferences in children's toys- classic, can be used across the span of ages, durable, and I really dislike toys/games with Characters on them. For example: when we went to buy the game Memory years and years ago, I had a hard time finding the classic version. When I found it, the box even stated "Classic Memory" I didn't want one that had Toy Story on it, or Cars or what ever the movie du jour was then. I wanted classic, never go out of style Memory. So needless to say, for better or worse, you may be in my corner for toys, or you may think "what kind of parent are you?", you will find very few Characters floating around our house.
Except for underwear. Yes. Underwear. In this one instance, I whole heartedly, fully embrace Characters. In this one area Character Counts.
Zach and I had the ritual experience every mother and child has of first underwear shopping. He couldn't find anything he wanted, and I am thinking there has to be something here amid all these racks of underwear that is going to catch your eye. No there was nothing. Nothing was going to do. So, I picked him up and I grabbed a few packs just to have them, praying it wasn't going to make a difference who was on his bum. And then the scream, " Bobba!!"
Bobba??
Mom, I want Bobba and Jango. And there it was one package of Lego Star Wars. Didn't know they had forayed into the underwear business? Neither did I. But at that moment, praise to the marketing department at Lucas Filmworks and Lego. We will survive yet another round of potty training.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
January
It may be the year of the Rabbit, but in our house it has started as the month of Zachary. Today, the last Sunday of the month he walked with Brian down to the Primary room, sat in a chair by himself and made it through the two hours without any incident. Contrast those scenes with some classic snapshots of the last month….the child loudly saying during the Sacrament Meeting closing prayer, “ I am NOT going to Primary…crying, crying loudly in Singing Time… keeping his little feet planted firmly on the ground in the chapel, not wanted to move them one inch because he knew where he was going… Yes, prayers are answered.
Even in the co-op preschool I do with him he has let me go out to the car to eat my yogurt for half the time. Baby, baby steps have made for a few large strides the last few weeks.
Potty Training is the other milestone we have started work on. I remember how much I dislike this aspect of child rearing. At least with the other boys there was always a younger sibling around that we had to be home for naps or other such “scheduled” events. We are accustomed to being free spirits now, we can go and do things, errands, airplane watching, park playing, whatever it is, whenever we want. So to be home all week has been a little stifling on our systems. He’s done great and actually, when all is said and done may have been my easiest one yet. It pays to be patient and wait.
Brian and I were talking the other night about Zachary. At times we focus so much on specific behaviors to improve, we don’t notice others which are rapidly growing and developing on their own. For instance, Zachary can conduct a Family Home Evening, by himself, and knows the specific order our family does things in and what to say. He has started praying independently and can make accurate statements in his prayers about events that are going on, people who are visiting or use appropriate language. Of course, we have plenty of random and off the wall statements, but it is fun to watch these aspects of his little persona develop.
My friend Laurel told us about Kids Rock, which her kids have participated in Denver. PF Changs Rock N Roll Marathons have started a program to encourage exercise, health and wellness in children. They encourage the kids to run 25.2 miles prior to race day, on race day they run the last 1 mile to complete their marathon. They run their race on the actual course, with all the fanfare and excitement of the marathon. The boys had a great experience and are all ready to race next year. We timed them the week prior to the race and they were running from 9:30 Brandon to 10:00¬ –Andrew. Race day they all ran 1 minute less than their best so all ran sub 9minute miles. We were proud of their efforts and seeing something through the end- a long term achieved goal.
January also brings Pinewood Derby. Matthew’s entry was “Streak” a low profile thin silver…well…streak. Matthew had a great time building his car this year, which he did by himself. He really got into working on his car and spent quite a bit of time sanding his car down to smooth silkyness, he has the patience to work small details and enjoy the process of building. All the boys in the pack had a fun morning, the atmosphere in the gym was like night and day with our previous ward. (Our previous ward had some serious derby families) Fun. Friendly. Genuine enthusiasm. Matthew’s car streaked down the track to fastest in the Pack. In typical Matthew fashion his response when called up was a smile and two nods of the head.
My SIL, Dawnelle, sent us some National Geographic Puzzles for Christmas. During New Years I sat down to start the one of Mt. Everest. What a bugger of a puzzle!!! Dawn, not to be confused with Dawnelle, got sucked in to it on a Saturday night when she was supposed to be home preparing her RS Lesson for the following morning. We kept chiding her to somehow tie the puzzle into her lesson. She asked Andrew what she should teach the sisters- his response- just teach them how to build a puzzle.” Wise beyond his years. Wouldn’t we all love to know exactly how to build this puzzle of life? I spent most of the month, on and off working on the puzzle, and did finally finish it, with no picture to prove its completion. Dawn beautifully tied in the puzzle to her lesson, and I thought about it over and over as I was trying to put these little pieces together. These are my thoughts of how putting together a puzzle relates to life. We know what we are supposed to do to be happy= we know how the edge pieces go together. Knowing is pretty easy compared to doing. Putting (doing) the middle is the tough part. You try a piece, and it doesn’t work, you try another, and another and another…Finally you find one that does. But it takes effort, thinking, and a certain stamina. Take for example, reading scriptures with your kids… you try one way, and then another, then a different time, and then a different room, a different way of laying on the floor, a different lighting in the room (you get the idea)…finally you find the way that works for you. For us its 6:40 in the morning- Brandon is ready to get picked up for orchestra at 7:00 and the other three come down in their jammies. But you don’t give up just because you can’t find the right piece. It’s there, you just have to try something new. I had a love/hate relationship with the puzzle- I was compelled to finish it, but it would drive me nuts because it was so ridiculously hard. As in life....I am compelled to be good mother and wife, but some days it is ridiculously hard!!
Brian went to the Tostitos Bowl with a few guys from the ward - we looked for him in the nosebleed seats but couldn’t ever find them.
We celebrated Brian’s birthday, somehow with the whirlwind of January it came up on us faster than we expected. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime’s two day shipping which 90% of the time is overnight for us, due to their warehouse somewhere in the Phoenix valley. It’s saved my hide a few times. He’s a good man and I am a lucky woman to have him around. I appreciate his sacrifice and dedication to all that he carries on his shoulders and always with a bit of humor ( in true Brian fashion).
Even in the co-op preschool I do with him he has let me go out to the car to eat my yogurt for half the time. Baby, baby steps have made for a few large strides the last few weeks.
Potty Training is the other milestone we have started work on. I remember how much I dislike this aspect of child rearing. At least with the other boys there was always a younger sibling around that we had to be home for naps or other such “scheduled” events. We are accustomed to being free spirits now, we can go and do things, errands, airplane watching, park playing, whatever it is, whenever we want. So to be home all week has been a little stifling on our systems. He’s done great and actually, when all is said and done may have been my easiest one yet. It pays to be patient and wait.
Brian and I were talking the other night about Zachary. At times we focus so much on specific behaviors to improve, we don’t notice others which are rapidly growing and developing on their own. For instance, Zachary can conduct a Family Home Evening, by himself, and knows the specific order our family does things in and what to say. He has started praying independently and can make accurate statements in his prayers about events that are going on, people who are visiting or use appropriate language. Of course, we have plenty of random and off the wall statements, but it is fun to watch these aspects of his little persona develop.
My friend Laurel told us about Kids Rock, which her kids have participated in Denver. PF Changs Rock N Roll Marathons have started a program to encourage exercise, health and wellness in children. They encourage the kids to run 25.2 miles prior to race day, on race day they run the last 1 mile to complete their marathon. They run their race on the actual course, with all the fanfare and excitement of the marathon. The boys had a great experience and are all ready to race next year. We timed them the week prior to the race and they were running from 9:30 Brandon to 10:00¬ –Andrew. Race day they all ran 1 minute less than their best so all ran sub 9minute miles. We were proud of their efforts and seeing something through the end- a long term achieved goal.
January also brings Pinewood Derby. Matthew’s entry was “Streak” a low profile thin silver…well…streak. Matthew had a great time building his car this year, which he did by himself. He really got into working on his car and spent quite a bit of time sanding his car down to smooth silkyness, he has the patience to work small details and enjoy the process of building. All the boys in the pack had a fun morning, the atmosphere in the gym was like night and day with our previous ward. (Our previous ward had some serious derby families) Fun. Friendly. Genuine enthusiasm. Matthew’s car streaked down the track to fastest in the Pack. In typical Matthew fashion his response when called up was a smile and two nods of the head.
My SIL, Dawnelle, sent us some National Geographic Puzzles for Christmas. During New Years I sat down to start the one of Mt. Everest. What a bugger of a puzzle!!! Dawn, not to be confused with Dawnelle, got sucked in to it on a Saturday night when she was supposed to be home preparing her RS Lesson for the following morning. We kept chiding her to somehow tie the puzzle into her lesson. She asked Andrew what she should teach the sisters- his response- just teach them how to build a puzzle.” Wise beyond his years. Wouldn’t we all love to know exactly how to build this puzzle of life? I spent most of the month, on and off working on the puzzle, and did finally finish it, with no picture to prove its completion. Dawn beautifully tied in the puzzle to her lesson, and I thought about it over and over as I was trying to put these little pieces together. These are my thoughts of how putting together a puzzle relates to life. We know what we are supposed to do to be happy= we know how the edge pieces go together. Knowing is pretty easy compared to doing. Putting (doing) the middle is the tough part. You try a piece, and it doesn’t work, you try another, and another and another…Finally you find one that does. But it takes effort, thinking, and a certain stamina. Take for example, reading scriptures with your kids… you try one way, and then another, then a different time, and then a different room, a different way of laying on the floor, a different lighting in the room (you get the idea)…finally you find the way that works for you. For us its 6:40 in the morning- Brandon is ready to get picked up for orchestra at 7:00 and the other three come down in their jammies. But you don’t give up just because you can’t find the right piece. It’s there, you just have to try something new. I had a love/hate relationship with the puzzle- I was compelled to finish it, but it would drive me nuts because it was so ridiculously hard. As in life....I am compelled to be good mother and wife, but some days it is ridiculously hard!!
Brian went to the Tostitos Bowl with a few guys from the ward - we looked for him in the nosebleed seats but couldn’t ever find them.
We celebrated Brian’s birthday, somehow with the whirlwind of January it came up on us faster than we expected. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime’s two day shipping which 90% of the time is overnight for us, due to their warehouse somewhere in the Phoenix valley. It’s saved my hide a few times. He’s a good man and I am a lucky woman to have him around. I appreciate his sacrifice and dedication to all that he carries on his shoulders and always with a bit of humor ( in true Brian fashion).
Friday, January 28, 2011
December Pictures
Brandon passing out candy in the Queen Creek Parade
The others with their loot bags
Matthew was a very stoic shepherd(very far right) in the nativity at the Christmas Party
Zach trying to help with the lights, you can faintly see his various strings of lights, both white and colored
Finally decorating the tree- it took us a few days to get everyones schedules aligned to get the job done
Matthew digging through his donut to get his Wolf award, one of his best friends Korbin is right next to him
The birthday dog-pile
Matthew chose to have fondue on his real day, since we had already had cake with his friends
A scary bunch, all wielding fondue forks
Happy 9th Birthday Matthew
The Lunar Eclipse
Decorating gingerbread houses- they were thoroughly picked through three days after, not much was left standing.
Christmas Eve
Trying out my new lens
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
New Years
Airing our dirty laundry?? Might look like it, but I'll have you know it was colder in Gilbert, AZ on New Years Eve than it was in New York. We were attempting to save our desert plants from dying an untimely death from frost. Let's just say we will be doing some severe pruning in a few weeks, but the only thing we ended up losing were the tomato plants.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
...all is calm, all is bright...
****I wrote this a few days ago and am now just getting around to posting it.***
Calm. Really , most days that is all I can ask for, for at least 5 minutes. But, the children are all nestled, snug in their beds, Brian is watching football, the soft sprinkling of rain hits against the windows and the quiet nights of lights sparkling on the tree are slowly slipping away. We have had a calm, peaceful and very relaxing vacation. I remember the not too distant years when the weeks of December were no different from the weeks in May or October- kids weren’t in school and they were around all day. Now December is a pausing point, a rejuvenation of sorts. No having to get up and make lunches, no two shifts (or three if you count Zach) of breakfast, no trying to get A-Z done before bed, no scouts, no meetings….breakfast can happen anywhere between 7-10am, everyone can eat leftovers for lunch, we head to the park to just run in the sun, snuggle on the couch to watch movies… we pause from the everyday to just enjoy each other. (this is not to say we are all happy all of the time- there have been plenty of choice moments! )
Matthew turned 9! We celebrated the beginning of December with a Percy Jackson party. All blue foods, god and goddess trivia, a hunt for blue pearls, decorating shields, spear throwing and lots of energetic boys. As I sat in the backyard, whittling the points sharper on the spears, I chuckled to myself, add this to my list of “ how can you tell if a mom has lots of boys”- she doesn’t bat an eyelash getting out a knife and making spears for a birthday party. On his actual birthday, the present he opened first was a new set of golf clubs, so everyone enjoyed an afternoon at the driving range.
A sweet sister bore her testimony this month, which happened to fall the day after the HS Football State Championships. Both her sons play football, one played on varsity the other on the freshman team. They played to a heartbreaking nail biting loss the afternoon before. She shared with the ward (and I hope my boys were listening) the pride she had in her boys and the accomplishments they had on the field this year, but even more important to her and a deeper joy and admiration for them came when she watched them perform their priesthood duties and worthily hold the priesthood. I so appreciated her thoughts- I need more women like her in our ward, she has older kids and has been through those phases in life we are just starting to enter.
We enjoyed a FHE with the Bishopric and their families. Such good families and good men. The boys loved a hot chocolate bar- mix-ins, whip cream, all the good stuff and cookies to top off the sugar high.
Brandon got his braces off. Most kids his age are just getting them on, I’m glad we are down one kid- I’m positive two of the other three will be sitting in the ortho chair in the not too distant future. The only issue is he has to remember to keep his retainer in, since it has his missing tooth in it, and his mouth looks a little peculiar with a large gaping hole. We need to address a more permanent solution because we all know what happens with kids and retainers, they generally don’t stay together!
The annual Christmas concert- the school finally has it down to a science, we have been through the years of growing pains, but we can be in and out in forty minutes now! I appreciate the theory and techniques the teachers are trying to teach the kids, but I feel bad when the kids don’t look like they are having fun up there. In 5 and 6th grade they start singing in harmony, but the songs they sing are slow and very “reverent” sounding. The other grades are singing funny Christmas songs, amusing parodies or energetic renditions of classic songs, which the audience thoroughly enjoys and the kids do to. Guess it is another growing pain.
Zachary never made it to a 100 % love of Nursery- his last few weeks of Nursery we still left him screaming at the door. But, by the time we came to get him, he was happy- so there was progress made. Sunbeams should be interesting.
Matthew loves science, anything and he is all over it. He came home 6 weeks ago with a paper detailing out the lunar eclipse which was to happen on Dec 21st. He desperately wanted to stay up and watch it. Realizing it would fall during break, we agreed that he would go to bed and we would wake him up at 1 am if there was anything to see. The clouds had been fairly intermittent and the forecast was for increasing cloud cover through the night. By 12:30 the moon was half covered, and could be seen on and off through the clouds, so we quickly woke them up. Andrew took one look and said, “where’s the couch?” Brian and I decided to carpe diem so he laid out towels and blankets for us on the back lawn, while I made hot chocolate and we laid there and talked and watched with Brandon and Matthew. By the time the moon was fully eclipsed the clouds were thick, and I was about asleep. I appreciate these moments which aren’t fully planned that turn into wonderful memories. I don’t know which made those two more excited, seeing a full eclipse of the moon ( which admittedly was pretty neat to watch in person) or being up at 1:30am?
Christmas morning came- thankfully not any earlier than they boys normally get up- around 6am. They were able to stay entertained with stockings and Santa presents- remote control cars and battle trucks for another hour. Zach wanted to open any and all presents. It was difficult to keep him away from the unopened gifts. We were finally able to put all the “family” gifts and mine and Brian’s in a pile separate from the boys, which he could open. And of course he was interested in all the gifts other than his own. Brian and I each got each other a gift which complemented the other perfectly, without knowing it. He got a smoker and I got bottles of Joe’s BBQ sauce ( which I love). As of this writing, we have already smoked ribs and pulled pork, and with a dash of this sauce we have been in heaven. The kids found a Rip Stick and a Green Machine at the end of their treasure hunt and have spent plenty of hours perfecting their spins and hip wiggles. Even Brian has managed to get the Rip Stick down, me not so much- I think they like me to ride it for the comic relief.
I had been trying to find something for my mom, which we all know can be a difficult prospect at times. I came across a camel for the nativity set she has, one I have loved for years. I thought it would be perfect, it was the one piece she was missing. When I opened up my gift from her Christmas morning- there was the Baby Jesus, and sheep in my hands. The rest of the pieces would be delivered later. I cried. And then had to try to explain to the boys why I was crying on Christmas morning.
Karen (my SIL) surprised us with a call one morning, wondering if they could stop by for an hour. They live in TX, and were out visiting her Grandmother. As we visited, and the kids played, and then as they left, I got wistful/wishing we had cousins for our kids to know. Their cousins on both sides are spread out in five states and now one is across the pond. We see at least one set of cousins a year, when we can coordinate a trip in SD or if someone surprises us, like Karen did. Thanks- now they all want to learn to make light sabers in photoshop!
Football is over, at least the sleepy eyes have persuaded him it is time for bed. A new year is in the horizon, not sure what it will bring, but I find great fulfillment in where we are in life and what we are doing. Truthfully, days can be wild keeping up with all the doings, but we are calm and sure of where we are and that is comforting.
Monday, December 20, 2010
November
Friday Nights and Saturdays throughout the fall were spent at the soccer fields. I just posted one of each of the boys because I didn't think anyone really wanted to see all 600 pictures I took over the course of their games. It is all in an attempt to get the perfect shot, which I never quite got of Matthew and Andrew, there is always next year. Andrew had a fun season despite the coach thinking they were 16 not 6. Brandon had a 180 degree switch from last year- a coach who actually coached, a coach who knew the game, a coach who was complementary, calm and had integrity. And to top it off they actually won some games. Matthew had a "character building" season along with Brian, who had a "character building' year as his coach.
Andrew
We grabbed the kids after they had each run and headed out to San Deigo for Thanksgiving. Craig, Gayle and their four kids had come down for the weekend as well, which made for a delightful time at Grandma and Grandpa's. Generally, we are either the only ones there, or the only one with older kids so this was a treat. Late night capture the flag games ensued everynight- each of them trying to sneak outside with a flashlight they had seripitously obsconded from Grandma's stash. Lots of running and hollering and plenty of, "take it outside boys..." Craig and Gayle have three boys, two are twins Brandon's age, and one daughter, who basically is just another one of the boys. Thanksgiving morning flag football was the game....
They are all getting to the age where they can actually understand plays drawn out on a palm.
My great- grandfather,and the boys great-great- grandfather, Edward Bunker, was one of the members of the Mormon Batallion.
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