Miss Mary's Accomplishment

A couple weeks ago Joel was tucking Mary into bed the night before he was leaving for his business trip to California.  He told her to try really hard to stop sucking her thumb while he was gone.  Now, Mary loves her thumb and always has.  She sucks her thumb when sleeping, when she is watching cartoons, when you are reading her a story, when she is sitting on the couch, and any other time that her hands are not busy with something else.  So, I wasn't too optimistic about it when Joel told me.  Well, the next morning Mary asked if we could go to the store and get stuff to put on her fingernails that would taste yucky if she sucked her thumb.  We went and got it for her.  She was trying so hard to not suck her thumb.  She was really concerned at naptime that she would stick her thumb in her mouth and get the yucky taste.  She was crying and I was afraid she would do that and wake up and then not go back to sleep.  All of a sudden I though to putting latex gloves on her hands.  She loved that idea.  She made it through naptime without sucking her thumb and we did the same thing at bedtime. She is pleased to announce that from that day until today, which will be 2 weeks tomorrow, she has not sucked her thumb once!  We only used the stuff on her nails for 1 day and the gloves at naptime/bedtime for 3 days!  I am SHOCKED that she stopped so quickly.  She wanted to stop and she did it!  Great work, Mary!

Gideon is on the Move

We had been wondering when Gideon was going to decide to walk.  He was almost 16 months old and would not stand on his own, let alone think about walking.  Now, who can really blame him when he has so many siblings at his beck and call.  All he has to do is pat them on the leg and they will pick him up and carry him wherever he wants to go.

A couple weeks ago, on the evening of the 15th, I was in the kitchen.  I looked down the hallway to see Gideon walking all by himself.  He started at the front door and walked all the way to the kitchen...a distance of about 20 feet, without a stumble.  When he got to the kitchen and saw me watching he just smiled, giggled, turned the corner and kept going.  The little stinker walked from then on.  I think he was hiding his new skill for quite some time because he is stable and able to stand up from the middle of the room and start walking anytime he wants.  It is so cute to see him walking around the house.  A part of me is sad though because they seem to grow up so much just by acquiring the skill of walking.  It's like he isn't my little baby anymore...he is a full fledged toddler now!  Joel was on a business trip to California from that day until Friday night.  When I talked to him and told him that Gideon was walking his response was, "He's not supposed to do that when I'm out of town.  I am only gone for 3 days!" 

Grinding Wheat

We decided to borrow our ward's Wheat Grinder so we could grind a lot of wheat all at once today.  The kids all wanted to help and be involved in it.  I looked over at one point and counted and all 6 of our kiddos were surrounding the table helping.  I just had to get a picture!

Our Defensive Star

Spring had her 3rd basketball game today.  WOW, was I amazed at the growth she has made in just 3 weeks.  Last Saturday Joel and I spent some time with her helping her understand a little more what she can do in certain situations to better defend as well as get open in offensive situations.  Her fundamentals are solid so she was just lacking in exposure to game situations.  She needed some confidence.  She worked really hard with us and she was willing to open up to me and ask some questions about things she didn't understand.  And, she showed drastic improvement today.

They play the same team each week because there are only 2 girls teams in her age division.  The first two games Spring's team lost by at least 20 points.  The other team has a couple of very experienced players that just dominated, scoring at least 90% of their teams' points.  Well, today Spring defended one of these 2 girls for the majority of the game and they didn't score at all while she was defending them.  It was quite comical to see them get frustrated because they could not get open and when they did get the ball Spring was all over them and they couldn't do a thing with the ball.  Their frustration led to inappropriate actions.  Spring made an awesome cut and was driving to the basket with no one in front of her.  One of the girls purposely stuck out her leg and took Spring's legs out from under her.  She fell to the floor hard, resulting in massive rug burns on her legs.  She jumped up, crying, but took off down the court to defend.  The girl she was defending was so frustrated that she started to swing her elbows really hard and clocked Spring in the jaw so hard that you could visibly see Spring's head jerk backwards.  I could tell she was hurting as she was crying hard but she would not give up and was all over the girl.  She continued to play and did not want to come out even though she could hardly move her jaw to talk for a few minutes.  I felt so bad for her and, yet, a part of me was so proud of her determination and drive.  She made this momma proud today!  Her team played really well together today and they only lost by 2 points!  What a marked improvement from the first 2 games!

Spring was so happy after the game too.  Her knees hurt pretty bad from the rug burns and her jaw from the couple different elbows but she was all smiles.  She earned the Defensive Player of the Game award!  It is a good thing Joel took some video and pictures because I can't sit still or quiet long enough to do it!  I love watching her play.  I get excited thinking about the times we will be able to share together in the coming years with basketball.  I hope she will look back on the times we share together with fondness as well.

"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"

Elder Ingersoll asked Thomas to accompany him on this piece in Sacrament Meeting in a couple weeks.  They practiced this morning for a short while.  Thomas loves being able to do this and so admires Elder Ingersoll. I'm grateful for the opportunity he has had to be influenced by such a great missionary.

How Daddy Feeds Gideon

This is what happens when Gideon is still hungry and Mom is already starting to do the dishes...Daddy takes over feeding duties!

Lunchtime

It seems that lunchtime is one of the most difficult parts of my day...one that I seem to dread everyday.  We often are gone in the morning running errands, going to the library for storytime, playing, and having a good time. Then we pick Sammy up from Kindergarten and come home. At this point all 4 of our little ones are not only hungry but they are tired too.  Sammy is excited to tell me all about his day at school so, of course, Mary can't be left out and has to talk louder and faster about everything she did that morning.  Often they start running around and playing and goofing off and the noise level escalates rapidly.  They all like to help me get lunch ready which often takes me even longer than if I just did it.  The last while I was realizing that I was spending more time correcting them and rushing them to finish lunch so we could head up for naptime then anything else.  And, it was taking longer and longer each day to get through lunch amidst the threats of going to naps without lunch being finished, or "if you get down one more time lunch will be over" and on and on.  Needless to say, lunchtime was a very dreaded time for me.

One evening about a week ago I found myself thinking about this and knowing that I needed to change something.  I want our children to look back on mealtimes as enjoyable.  We do great at dinnertime but I was always rushing them through lunch and not enjoying it with them.  I blamed it on the fact that they were just tired and ready for naps.  But, as I thought more about it I realized it was becuase I wasn't engaged with them.  I often wasn't sitting with them because I was busy cleaning up from making lunch and getting things ready to lay them down for naps.  I don't know why it took so long for me to realize that all they really wanted was my attention and since I was too busy with other things they knew they would get my attention if they messed around.

So, we started a new plan and it is working amazing!  I actually look forward to lunchtime now.  Just today Sammy told me lunchtime is his favorite part of the day (now by tonight I am sure something else will be his favorite).  We work together to get lunch all ready and have prayer.  Then I sit with them and read to them from the Friend while they eat lunch.  They LOVE it and I LOVE how calm and attentive they are.  It is amazing to watch them eat their lunch in peace!  It has given us countless opportunities to talk about the stories and sometimes they will mention something similar to a story that happened to them.  We talk about what we learn from the story before moving to the next story.  It has been an amazing opportunity to share our testimonies with each other.  I am baffled, although I know I shouldn't be, at how much it has helped them be kinder to one another.  I see them trying to help each other clear their dishes after lunch or go out of their way to say something kind or to do other things that they heard about in the stories.  It is true that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass."  The Spirit is in our home and lunchtime is now a calm and peaceful time to share and learn together.  And, the bonus....they usually finish lunch and are up in bed for naptime even faster than before!

The Living Christ

We have had a few people ask about the pictures on our family room wall.  A few months back we decided we wanted to memorize "The Living Christ" as a family.  So, we decided to learn it line by line and pair it with a picture that would help us understand the meaning of the words.  As we introduce the new line we talk about what it means.  It has been an incredible opportunity for our family to focus on the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Our testimony of Jesus Christ has grown.  It has given us so many opportunities to discuss and answer questions that our children have. Sometimes we will be reading in the scriptures or talking about something and Joshie will run to the wall and point to a picture that shows what we are talking about.  Sometimes as I listen and watch them play I will see them pointing to the wall and reminding each other what they have learned.  It has been incredible how much we notice these teachings in our scripture study as well.  We are about 2/3 of the way through it at this point.  Our family has had countless blessings as we have used this opportunity to do as Nephi instructs:

 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. (1 Nephi 25:26)