Mission Call Photo Shoot

One of the results from a missionary photo shoot

More Missionary Photos

This Week at Our House # 21

We had an exciting and eventful week. Joseph and Rachel had the stomach flu on Monday. Joshua and Arwen had stomach aches on Wednesday and Thursday but nothing more. Ruth, Joshua, Anya, and Sam all had runny noses, congestion and coughs. Sam did not sleep Thursday, Friday, or Saturday nights. Ruth took out her endowments on Tuesday and my parents came for that. Kate came and babysat Sam at the Temple so I could feed him before and after. Johnny and Adam babysat at home. The kids behaved and no one was sick. We finished off homeschool on Thursday. I was able to get through all of the history and science I wanted to for the year, and I wish I had gotten in a little more math. We cleaned the whole house and both fridges and mowed the lawn on Friday and took Saturday off. Today is the day we chose to celebrate Kate's high school graduation. Ruth has said that people may think we are not busy because we don't do a lot of sports and lessons and things, but we are always busy and there is always something happening. I think that comes from having 11 wonderful children. Life is good.

Pictures

Arwen adores Ruth

Kate Becomes Our First Home School Graduate

We ended homeschool on Thursday and held a mock graduation ceremony for Kate today!! She is a homeschool high school graduate. She gave a little speech in which she listed off all the books she plans to read this summer. They include Pilgrim's Progress and The Wealth of Nations  . She is no ordinary high school graduate. Kate is mature and good and smart. We are proud, but mostly just happy to have her here and home and around. We will all miss her when she leaves for BYUI in the fall.

We will celebrate Kate's graduation with ice cream cones, steak, and sushi.

When Your Grown Child Makes You Happy

Ruth cheered because I forgot to bring the camera to the Temple. She took out her endowments last night. Ruth read and studied and was very ready for this big step. She came through glowing and happy to continue on the path as a covenant daughter of God. We are very happy parents.

This Week at Our House #20

1. John printed two copies of his book, and I have been reading it. It's called Redemption and Zion. I am editing it a bit for him, but mostly really enjoying it. I am lucky to have a good and very insightful husband. When editing is done, he will fix it and order a copy for each of our kids. I think this is a wonderful way to teach our children. 
2. I am hurriedly trying to get the rest of our math and history finished up for the school year. We have one more week to go, and we are ready for a nice 2 month break.
3. Ruth did a lot of babysitting and has earned some money for her mission. She is very happy about having an opportunity to earn a little money. We are all excited that Ruth will be taking out her endowments on Tuesday. She got the rest of her Temple recommend today. She reads scriptures two hours everyday and listens to conference talks. Neal A. Maxwell has become one of her favorite speakers. She is also reading the first 50 pages of John's book to help prepare her.
4. Kate spent the week taking care of her baby bird. She wouldn't have been able to do it without homeschool. You have to feed baby birds every hour. The bird has very thoroughly adopted our family. It flies over and sits on us all of the time. It saw the kids playing legos at the open platform upstairs and kept flying up there to be with them. This wild bird is probably the friendliest pet we have ever owned. It wants to be a part of the family. 
5. Johnny keeps doing lots and lots of chores for me because he loves me and is just good.
6. Adam finished off all of his workbooks and only has one more section of math to do. He is ready for algebra. I bought a pretty tough pre-algebra book, so he has already covered everything in the first three chapters of our algebra book. Our algebra book is pretty tough too. It's what made it possible for Kate to skip algebra 2 and go straight to pre-cal at 14.
7. Rachel went babysitting with Ruth and Kate. Kate pays her a little. Rachel loves it. 
8. Anya went babysitting with Ruth too because she is good friends with the little boy Ruth was babysitting. 
9. Joseph likes to tackle Adam. Adam has been much better at not hurting Joseph recently. 
10. Joshua's reading is coming along. I am really pleased with where he is at for the end of the school year. 
11. Arwen was singing Anastasia songs with gusto all week. I love it when my kids sing.
12. We are now seeing results with Suzy for potty training. She seems to know when she needs to poop now and has been taking herself. Everyone else takes her potty frequently because they get her treats along with her if they take her. I don't think she wet her pants at all this week because whenever one of the older kids wanted a treat, they asked me for permission to take Suzy to the bathroom.
13. Sam is so close to crawling. He makes it all over the living room now. It won't be long now.

Pictures

This Week at Our House # 19

1. The week was good. Both hdmi ports on our tv started to die, so John bought me a new one for mothers day. He upgraded from a 32" to a 40". Rachel said that it made her feel rich. We had a good laugh since those were the smaller tv's at the end of the row of tv's in Walmart.
2. We now only have 2 weeks left of school and it sounds like seminary will not go to much past that either. I am ready for vacation and so are the kids. But I have been going strong with school trying to get a few things finished up.
3. Ruth babysat for 4 children for part of the week, while their mother is in London.
4. Anya found a baby bird that had fallen onto a low lying bush. She rescued it. I am not sure it needed rescuing, but it was done. It had a layer of fluffy feathers, but could not fly. Kate adopted the baby and has been feeding it every hour or two. The baby bird has in return adopted Kate. When it sees Kate it puts its head up and opens its beak just like newborn birds in books. The bird seems quite healthy and Kate is doing a good job. It now has strong wing feathers and less fluff. 
5. Johnny has been doing big chores to get an hour of computer time most days. It's hard to say no when there is always so much that needs to be done in this size family.
6. Adam had a good week. We have been working pretty hard on helping him to make good decisions and saying things truthfully.
7. Rachel went babysitting with Ruth one day. Ruth ended up having to hold the baby all day or she would cry, so Rachel was very helpful until the end of the day when she made up the game where all the kids played toddler and were 1 and 2 year olds so they fake cried and made messes. Ruth and I had a good laugh about it, after Ruth recovered from her hard day.
8. Anya went with Ruth too the one day because Anya and their oldest son are good friends. They are in the same homeschool and primary classes. And then of course, Anya was the baby bird rescuer. 
9. Joseph is sad that we will not let him hold the baby bird. 
10. Joshua played soccer with John and the other boys and we were surprised that he out ran Joseph. Joshua fell twice as a baby and fractured his skull. He did not have any symptoms at the time, but he has always been very uncoordinated and we have expected that is why.
11. Arwen has become more assertive and more imaginative. She dumps out a lot of toys and plays more elaborate games.She gets Susan and Joshua to play with her, and then fights them when they don't do it the way she wants them too.
12. It was week number two of potty training Suzy. One day she told me she needed to poop and spent a half hour in the bathroom doing so, and the next day she just pooped her pants. Sometimes she just takes herself pee and sometimes she just pees her pants, so the results are very mixed. She knows the process, but she doesn't seem to always know when something is going to happen. I will keep it up. I think she is ready enough and I am tired of paying for diapers for 2 kids. 
13. Sam is 6 months!! He is up on all fours and swaying back and forth. He loves to bounce up and down when we set him on the couch. He still sleeps with me and won't go to bed without me. Last night I laid down with him and got him to sleep  and then was able to sneak out without him waking right up, so that is progress. Sam and Kate are the only two that would not sleep alone at this age. 

Pictures