Family Christmas Craft

I like to make crafts with my kids a lot during the Christmas seasons and the kids love to do it too. We use their little home made creations to decorate the house. I know that it does not make our house beautifully decorated, but the kids love having their art work displayed and I love my kids. So it works. Last week we made paper Christmas stockings to hang up between our dining room and living room entry way. John decided to join us and sat down and asked what we were making. We all chimed in "Christmas Stockings!" John said hmmm.. and this is what he came up with. I Love it!!!! I always thought that song "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake" was a bit creepy anyway. I laughed a lot over this drawing. We thought that it could make a great Christmas card, if it was sent to the right people.

I think that John has the best sense of humor. I can always count on John to find humor in everything-- however odd it may be. He makes our lives funner and more interesting, and sometimes annoying because you can't say something without a pun being made from it. But we could not do without our great Husband and Father and our own personal comic book.

Sweet Ruth

I found this list in a notebook alongside some spelling words that Ruth had written out.




Ruth is cute.
Kate is very beautiful.
Adam is funny.
Johnny is nice.
Rachel is sweet.
Mom is a good cook.
Dad is great at math.




I do agree with Ruth that she is cute. I thought that this list of family traits by Ruthy is just adorable. She is a very sweet girl. The other night during family scripture study Ruth held Rachel on her lap and they gently rubbed each other's cheeks. It is times that I find things written like this and see my children so sweetly playing that I know families are a blessing and worth all the work.

Compassion and Faith

This weekend Johnny got very sick in the middle of the night. When our kids are sick we move their mattresses to the family room so they can lay in their beds and watch movies while they are ill. But on Saturday mornings, Ruth and Kate wake up early to watch cartoons. This Saturday I intercepted Ruth and Kate from going down to the TV too early so Johnny could get a little sleep. Later, when I went into Ruth and Kate's bedroom to tell them that it was okay to go and watch cartoons they both looked worried and declared that they had prayed and decided that they should fast for Johnny. I talked to them a little about their decision and we decided that it was a very nice idea for them to fast breakfast that morning to help Johnny. I felt very impressed and humbled by the compassion and genuine concern Ruth and Kate had for their brother, and also for their trust and faith in the Lord. Johnny spent all Saturday very ill and with a high fever, but awoke Sunday morning with no fever and feeling well again. I believe that his sister's devotion and faith helped him to get better quickly. I also know that I have very good children. They are a delight and a blessing to my husband and me.

Scooby Doo and Bob the Builder

Scooby Doo Stuff

We don't buy very many movies because in our house, the parents and the children, will watch a movie once and be done with it forever. There are a few that we like and will watch over and over. But that is the exception. I have recently bought a few Scooby Doo movies because I noticed that the kids do not seem to tire of these movies and gripe that they are never checked into the library. This summer we bought a dvd player for the car when we traveled to Maine. We thought this was a good buy because we also travel 170 miles to the Oklahoma City Temple every month and drag the kids along. So we use this DVD player a lot. Well, pretty much the only movies the kids seem to want to watch in the car are our Scooby Doo movies. So I have bought some more and there are a lot more I can still buy. John and I have not watched them all, but we could tell you about every episode because we have listened to them all again and again and again. I even find myself humming the What's New Scooby Doo theme song all the time.

Adam has really enjoyed watching Scooby Doo movies recently. At least Scooby Doo is the only thing he wants to watch right now. The last two times he has watched Scooby Doo I asked him how he liked it. Both times Adam has said that they were scary. The first time Adam said, "The Tiki Wiki made my Scooby Doo run away." The second time Adam said, "That scary bad guy made my Scooby Doo run away."

Bob the Builder Stuff

From Halloween until after New Years my kids are pretty wild. They run and scream a lot more and everything gets broken. They also never go to bed when they are supposed to. This year there has been a new twist in things. Ruth, Kate, and Johnny have found that life is more exciting if they can get Adam to chase them around. To rile Adam up they say, "Adam, Bob the Builder is stupid. Adam, Bob the Builder can't fix it." Then Adam yells, "He is not stupid. Bob the Builder can fix it!" Then he runs after them and chases them all over the house.

Adam bought a Bob the Builder hammer with his birthday money and has been hammering various things around the house. If I ask him something like, "Adam are you putting a hole in the wall?', or "Adam why are you banging on our Nativity Set?" Adam will reply, "No, Mom, I am fixing it."

Gender Idenity (Not For All Readers)

Since I am printing these and keeping them for a journal I am printing something that other people may be offended by. But I have found it so funny that I just needed to write it down.

I recently read some developmental material on three year olds. Adam is now three and I like to read things like that as a reminder every once in a while. This keeps me from being too surprised or alarmed at my children's behavior. One thing that this article mentioned that I did not know was that at three children start to recognize gender difference. When I read that, I thought, well Adam does seem to know who is a girl and who is a boy in our family, but I am not sure he has any idea why some of us are girls and some of us are boys. A few days passed and I forgot all about this with Thanksgiving and everything. Then one evening after Rachel's bath Adam came into my bedroom where I was drying Rachel off and putting some lotion on her before I put on her diaper. Adam asked me what I was doing and I told him. Then he said with surprise, "Mommy, Rachel not have a private." So three is the age when children notice the difference between boys and girls. I did try and explain that Rachel was perfectly normal for a girl, but Adam insisted that private parts just do not exist for Rachel.

Thanksgiving

We have all decided that Thanksgiving is a difficult and not fun holiday. I spent 20 hours cooking and cleaning; the kids disliked all of the food. After the feast and the clean up Kate said to me, "Mom, let's not do Thanksgiving next year-- that was boring." During the dinner, Ruth said,"Is this all that we do for Thanksgiving?" Clearly we had a lot of dissatisfaction. I suppose when I first got pregnant with Ruth I made a pact with myself to not be bothered by what my kids like or don't like to eat. Kids are naturally rude and picky when it comes to food. I actually am not bothered that our kids don't like turkey and squash and pie etc. I never base meals on what kids want to eat. We would all be sick and half starved. But I was so exhausted after all the work (probably from being 7 months pregnant really), and the kids don't really care, so I have concluded that Thanksgiving is not worth it. But we will do Thanksgiving next and year and from hence forth for one simple reason. We are weird enough when it comes to holidays. Our kids don't believe in Santa Claus because Kate decided he could not be real when she was only three and declared that to everyone else and I just couldn't say, "You idiot, Santa is real." I did say, "You are right, but it is fun to pretend." That was not convincing so we have no Santa. We also do not do the Easter Bunny because I think that is lame and could never bring my self to tell the children that a talking bunny hops around hiding eggs for kids. Instead we celebrate Easter as a religious holiday and buy all the loot when it is 50% to 75% off and have an easter egg hunt a week after the rest of America. So we are too weird as it is. If I want my kids to be semi-normal Americans I think that I must keep with Thanksgiving traditions despite objections from the children.

I must add one funny note at the end. John said how much more he appreciates Halloween in comparison to Thanksgiving. Halloween is easy to set up and clean up and you get a weeks worth of candy. Thanksgiving is difficult to set up and clean up and you get a weeks worth of Turkey. Which would you choose?

Who in the World

Johnny : Kate I am going to tell you a joke. Knock, Knock.

Kate (with a tone of exasperation): Who in the world is there!!