Mother's Day 2017

I had the priviledge of spending mothers day with all 11 of my children. Next year I will only have 9. Ruth will be on her mission and Kate will be attending her second semester of BYUI. I am grateful that I get one mother's day with all of them, and I am grateful they are doing good things with their lives.

6 Months Old

This little guy is half a year already.

This Week at Our House # 18

1. John has been finishing up a short book he is writing on building Zion. I will be interested to read it when he has finished. I have this little vision that our kids come excitedly every night to sit around their father to hear what he has to teach about the scriptures. That is in no way true. Sometimes they come happily. Some of the littlest ones come kicking and screaming, but mostly the kids have a lot to say, or can't sit still or wrestle etc.
2. We had the missionaries over twice. John and I went to the Temple together (Kate and Sam came along). We did a lot of chores and cleaning. I homeschooled the kids. I have added in a couple of different things. We had a presentation given by a girl in Eastern Idaho about music. That was very interesting and left us with a lot to talk about. I had the kids watch the roots tech presentation from President and Sister Nelson. That gave us things to talk about too. And now I am adding in a Church book as part of required schooling for Rachel and older.
3. The bank covered what was stolen out of Ruth's bank account. She went with the sister missionaries to visit her friend Nathan from her senior year and ended up talking with her mother instead. Ruth got the first half of her Temple recommend, and I set up her appointment for her endowment. It's a pretty exciting time for Ruth right now.
4. Kate is finding that while the school year is coming to end, there is still so much she wants to learn. I think Kate will become a lifetime learner.
5. I got a text from the Young Men's President after the midweek youth activity. He said that Johnny was able to answer all the questions the young mens president had made from Preach My Gospel. The young mens president was very impressed. I was surprised because we don't even have that book. Johnny knows those answers from his scripture study.
6. Adam has some warts on his hands that have been very stubborn. I have been treating them with vitamin c and making hin take an oral vitamin c pill too. I am hoping that will do it. They are turning black.
7. Rachel loves to play games and do things with John and I. She will go to John with a snack and her scriptures and ask him to read with her. She will get me to play the story game or the picture game.
8. Anya and Joseph got all of their completed school workbooks, started a fire with them and made smores while they burned.
9. Did I ever say that Joseph has a lot of energy? He is constantly on the move.
10. Joshua has finished off all of his kindergarten curriculum, so now he just has to read and do his first grade math.
11. Arwen loves to kiss Sam, but Sam doesn't like it very much.
12. I started potty training Suzy. I think it will take a month or more. I cleaned a lot of poop out of her underwear as she has only made it twice. She mostly makes it to the toilet the other way, but that has a lot to do with us taking her and telling her to go.
13. Sam loves to play with cards. We gave him some of the old card games that needed replacing.

Pictures

This Week at Our House # 17

1. John just had a normal week of work. 
2. I got back into the homeschool swing of things. We now only have 4 weeks until summer vacation!!But seminary will go on longer. 
3. Somehow someone got Ruth's bank card information and was able to use it before the bank realized something was wrong and denied the expenditures. She lost a little over $130. But then she was offered a 4 to 5 day babysitting job at $70 a day.
4. I began taking Kate to parking lots to drive. John took her to a nearby neighborhood. She is doing ok.
5. Johnny has decided to learn Russian and is working on the Russian alphabet. He got his ACT scores. He scored 2 points higher than his dad did at the same age. He will take it one more time because he would like to bump it up another point or two. But his score is good. 
6. Adam is starting to learn hymns on the piano through his own initiative.
7. Rachel has been cruising through the Fablehaven series and enjoying it. And that makes me happy.
8. Anya puts Arwen to bed every night and helps her to brush her teeth and say her prayers. It's such a nice helpful thing to do. 
9. Joseph has joined Ruth and Adam as some of our stronger more athletic children. He can now do a front hand spring. 
10. Joshua is recognizing words all over now! Arwen was saying something in the car and said "It is spelled s o." Josh said, "So? No it is not. S o is so!"
11. Ruth has been teaching and reading to Arwen each school day for me. Arwen isn't very pleased with the teaching part, but she loves the reading time. 
12. Suzy got pretty noisy in Church, so the two kids sitting in front of her turned and looked at her. That disconcerted her a little. Again she got pretty noisy, but when the boys turned to look again, she said something like, "You don't look at me! Turn around!"
13. Sam is bum-scooting. I've never had a baby do that before. But, when we sit him on his bottom, he bounces up and down to propel himself forward. On his belly, he has only been able to move backwards. All of it is very cute.

A Few More Pictures

I put these on the side bar. This is in a swampy section of trail at the River Park.

This Week at Our House #16

1. We had spring break, but John didn't. He had to work pretty hard this week. He has a couple of things due on Monday too, so I think he is in for another busy week.
2. We actually made spring break a busy week. We did 3 fun trips-- 2 to beaches, and 1 to the river park. The youth had a Temple trip and the boys had a paintball and pizza activity with the young mens. It was not a relaxing spring break, but it was a fun one.
3. Ruth got her passport information submitted. She paid the extra money to have it expedited, so she will have that soon.
4. Kate enjoyed no seminary, all of our trips, Ruth, and reading books.
5. Johnny enjoyed no seminary and extra time to read. He enjoyed the paintball, Temple trip, and beach trips.
6. Adam loved paintball. That's a very Adam game. He LOVES the beach a lot. No matter how cold or windy, Adam just dives in.
7. Rachel liked having free time to play computer games. She also really enjoyed the beach. She seemed to be very interested in the snake we found at the river park too.
8. Anya loved our beach trips and going out to dinner because we were away from home.
9. Joseph enjoyed no school work and taking trips. 
10. Josh likes the beach more now. He can get tired of it because he does not like the sand. He seemed very content with everything we did this week. But, he is grounded from the computer until he is 100, so going out would be more to his tastes right now.
11. Arwen made us laugh. I heard someone saying, "Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom..." while I was driving and asked who was momming and why. When the kids asked her what was wrong, she cried out, "I want Josh to love me, but he won't!!"
12. Suzy had a bit more trouble with temper tantrums this week. But she probably got less sleep.
13. We bought Sam a hat, so sunburn won't be as big of an issue for him. 

Pictures

We took a lot of great pictures so here goes...

playing pooh sticks

the snake right on the side of the trail

this is in Nags Head, NC

He didn't want to dive into the cold water, but he did so he could get the second shower