This Week at Our House # 30

1. John seems to have gone from a part time insomniac to a full blown insomniac. He worked all night and slept half the day every day this past week. He would go to bed, not be able to sleep, and then get up and work.
2. I am working on trying to heal from gall stones. I am still having pain, but not as much. I have been able to exercise and will continue to work on training to walk a half marathon. . I am doing a pretty strict vegan diet. I am only on day 3, but I do think it is helping. Before I was pretty much only drinking, so this is better. The heating pad has been the other big help. The diet is for 6 weeks and I am already tired of raw vegetables and really want some nice squishy homemade bread. But I need to get healthy. I have known for a long time that my stomach was pretty messed up from having so many babies.
3. 23 more days and I will officially be a missionary mom. That will be a hard goodbye. Ruth is anxiously waiting for the mail each day as she expects her passport and visa coming in the mail. Ruth made an appointment at the temple for herself, John, and I so we went on Saturday and the rest of the kids babysat.
4. Kate has been spending at least an hour each day practicing the piano. She says she does not like not being good at something. Kate always has put in what ever effort is needed to be successful.
5. Johnny injured his foot playing soccer and spent the rest of the week laying around. He is not very good at staying down.
6. Adam took on all of Johnny's chores and did so without complaint. He even mowed the lawn for the first time. I bought him some peanut m&m's as a prize for his kindness and he shared them freely.
7. Rachel likes computer games too much. It was our last week of summer break and she played as much as we would allow.
8. Anya has played dolls with Arwen and Susan a lot since Arwen's birthday. I love how my kids play with each other.
9. Joseph got a new set of scriptures in the mail from his grandma, so he has been reading scriptures a lot more.
10. Ruth wrote this up about Josh: I asked Josh early in the morning what he was going to do when I was gone for two years on my mission, but couldn't get a response. At around 8 or 9 at night Josh came into my room and said "Ruth I know what I'm going to do when you're gone." At this point I had forgotten about the question, but remembered and asked, "What are you going to do?" He responded, "I'm going to take your little curly stuffed animal." Not what I was expecting but it was hilarious.
11. Arwen had her fifth birthday, which she loved! She got a set of baby dolls nearly the same as Susan's at Arwen's request. She also got a toob of mini- dinosaurs. She shared everything and has spent everyday since her birthday playing with her new toys.
12. Suzy has curly blond hair and it is so cute.
13. Sam is such a bouncy, wiggly, baby. He is constantly on the move.

Pictures

Happy Birthday, Arwen!

Little Princess Arwen turned 5! She is a quiet, sweet, and very capable little girl. Arwen is good at cleaning up her own toys and keeping things nice. She is very kind to her brothers and sisters. She got a toob of dinosaurs for her birthday and she immediately gave Susan's favorite dinosaur to her. Arwen loves to play with her toys, color, and look through books. She loves her clothes, especially skirts, and is quite the little girly girl. Arwen, we love you!

This Week at Our House # 29

1. Work went well for John this week as he turned in another project that was helpful to the company. John, Ruth, and I went to the Temple on Tuesday. We are still dealing with this sickness. I got sick on Wednesday and have not fully recovered, so most of the week was pretty low key except for Joseph's birthday and baptism.
2. As well as being sick, I am wondering if I have some injury because I have had severe pain in my lower breast bone going into my back. I have wondered if it is a hiatal hernia, but I am not inclined to go see a doctor about it unless it lasts a long time. After doing some internet searching, I am positive it is my gall bladder. We did an internet search for severe stomach pain after eating and gall bladder trouble described my pain exactly. Plus my mother and two sisters and had their gall bladders removed. I am looking up diet changes over surgery.
3. Ruth started feeling sick too. She has heard that her visa is approved and that her passport has been mailed back. She has 29 days until she flies out.
4. When speaking about public high school, Kate said, "History class tells you nothing is the truth. English class tells you everything is the truth. I come home and think 'the only thing I know is math!'"
5. Johnny mowed the lawn when the heat index was 108. He is a trooper.
6. Adam gave his first talk in Sacrament Meeting today. He wrote it himself and practiced it on us. He cried a bit about it, but in the end, he did a good job.
7. Rachel has been feeling ill the last 4 days. 
8. Anya gave the baptism talk at Joseph's baptism. She said she danced into the font when she was baptized. She said that she was also scared about being dunked because she could only hold her breath for 8 seconds, but then her baptism only took one second. She was pretty cute.
9. Joseph had his birthday. He requested crepes with chocolate pudding, whipped cream, and homemade chocolate pudding for dinner and ice cream cake roll for dessert. We kept plenty of salad around that day.
10. Joshua and Arwen have played together with all the stuffed animals all week.
11. Arwen loves her toys and dumps them all out a lot, but she is usually very willing to pick them up and put them away.
12. Suzy did better with potty training. She will take herself poop if she is not wearing a diaper, so progress is finally being made. 
13. Sam loves to climb. We tend to block the stairs so he won't climb up, but them he climbs up the outside along the wall.

Pictures

Joseph's Baptism

One of the things I like about living on the East Coast are simple Baptisms. Joseph had a very simple baptism tonight. Our family did all of the talking, singing and playing, even if we weren't very good. Arwen gave the opening prayer. Anya told about her baptism. Ruth, Kate, and Rachel sang Nearer My God to Thee. Kate sang A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, and Kate spoke about the Holy Ghost. Johnny and I did the piano playing, and Johnny said the closing prayer.

Joseph's Baptism lasted for about 40 minutes. He got baptized and confirmed and we went home. John taught us some more at home. I took some pictures and we had a simple dinner and dessert.

Joseph was excited for this. He is a good boy. He knows the scriptures well for his age. He has been reading the Book of Mormon this year and is about half way through. I definitely think he was ready for this step. Now he is on a journey to learn from the Holy Ghost that he was given tonight.

Happy Birthday, Joseph

This very happy, energetic, smart, smart boy has turned 8!!!! At 8 years old Joseph loves games of all sorts, legos, wrestling his brothers, running, and climbing. He bakes cookies, cakes, brownies, and pancakes. He loves to talk and tell jokes. Joseph has always been happy and easy going and he is a best friend to Adam, Anya, Josh, and his Dad. We love our cheery boy!

This Week at Our House # 28

1. We've had this really odd minor, yet lengthy illness. Some people have had runny noses and sore throats and laryngitis, and others low grade fevers and aches, some with coughs, some with stomach issues. Then it seems you will be sick for about 4 hours and then better for 4 days and then get different issues. I suppose it is possibles that we just have more than one germ going around at the same time too. It hasn't been bad enough to keep us from regular life, but it has been annoying. John and I took all the kids except Johnny to look at 2 houses and then to the beach. But neither was the right sort of property.
2. I love swimming. John was nice and took Sam much of the time at the beach, so I got in about 2 hours of swimming. I am trying to get a lot more exercise, so I swam 2 hours one day, and then walked 3 miles another and 3.5 another. I tend to go out at night because it is very hot in the day time right now. But in time, I would like to add a 10 mile walk one more day. I am planning on walking another half marathon next winter.
3. Ruth got rerouted to the Provo missionary training center instead of the Preston, England one. She's pretty sad about that. She was looking forward to going straight to England. She now has 36 days until she leaves.
4. Kate and I are reading a book together. There was one more that she got for Christmas that we wanted to read before she leaves for college in another month and a half.
5. Johnny was feeling sick on the day we went to the beach so he stayed home. When we got home at 10pm, he had cleaned the house and was just getting cookies into the oven.
6. Adam and Johnny spent two days with friends. One day playing board games for hours and then Saturday morning swimming.  
7. Rachel swam a lot this week. She swam at the beach pretty much the entire 4 hours, then again when she went babysitting with Ruth, and then again with the same family that took Adam. She was pleased because she can swim without effort in the deep end of the pool now.
8. Anya has been working steady on her cross stitch. 
9. Joseph is very, very excited for his birthday and baptism that are coming up in the next week. He has told me daily about what food and what presents he wants.
10. Oh my, oh my, oh my!!!!Joshua was standing in front of the toilet when Kate walked in. He asked Kate for a towel for the "pee drip that never comes off". Kate said you use toilet paper for that. Josh said, "that's disgusting, I never use toilet paper." Kate asked what he uses instead and Josh said it's a secret. 
11. John had this interesting exchange with Arwen while trying to get her to say her prayers by herself: John - "Ask heavenly father for what you need." Arwen - "Ask heavenly father for what you need." Dad - "No. Arwen, what is something you need?"Arwen, quite frankly - "Rope." So she prayed for rope. John then told her it we leave it up to Heavenly Father to decide whether He will give it or not. Then before leaving the room he asked her why she needed rope. Arwen said "For a horse".
12. Susan was napping on a mattress that just lies on the floor upstairs while Ruth and Kate were tending Sam. Sam got on the bed next to Suzy ad started bouncing and laughing. Suzy woke up, moaned, and said, "No, Samol." She then rolled to the end of the bed. Sam excitedly crawled after her, and started bouncing up and down again. Near to tears, Suzy said, "Stop it, Samol!" Then she rolled off the bed with a blanket and hid under the blanket. 
13. Sam has been sleeping in his bed for 5 to 8 hours a night. That has been wonderful for me and it has given John and I a little more time together.

Drawings

by Joshua

by Ruth

by Ruth

By Rachel

By Anya

by Anya

by Anya

This Week at Our House #27

1. We had a very dull Fourth of July, and a fairly ordinary week. 
2. I cleaned a lot. I go into closets and under beds and reorganized things.
3. Ruth does a lot of dishes without ever being asked. I will miss that when she is gone. She only has about 45 days left before she leaves and she is excited!
4. Kate and Ruth finished reading volume 1 of History of the Church and Mansfield Park this week.
5. Johnny has laryngitis and it sounds so funny!
6. Adam wrestles Joseph all the time and now that it is July, the heat wave has hit and the kids spend more time inside. It is particularly hard to have big Adam wrestling and running around indoors.
7. Rachel was mostly grateful that I organized her closet. Even though we had a blah fourth of July, she was happy to get her spaced cleaned up. She has been drawing and organizing those.
8. I did a small sewing project with Anya and Rachel. Anya loved it and wanted to do one everyday, so I bought her a cross stitch packet and she has been doing a very good job and really enjoying it.
9. Joseph will be 8 soon. His baptism date has been set. He seems 8 too. I am not at all worried about him being mature enough or knowing enough.
10. Joshua has been dumping out lots of toys to play huge games with. Josh and Arwen have been playing with the toys together all day long.
11. Arwen has been particularly interested in the dinosaurs. It is cute to hear her voice echoing over the other noises of the house as her dinosaurs talk to each other.
12. Suzy likes to sing. You can ask her to sing you a song and she will just make something up on the spot and sing it. Sometimes, we will hear here singing full songs from movies or church.
13. Sam will be 8 months this week. He spent the week climbing up the stairs. He does not know how to get down. He can now stand without support for about 30 seconds too. I think that is pretty young for all of our kids. He loves food now, and no one can eat anything without Sam finding his way to them and then bawling loudly. More than one kid this week asked, "why is Sam standing by me crying?" All those kids had food in their hands.

Pictures