Simple Moments

A couple wonderful moments with my kids I want to remember . . .

We were driving in the car and were doing solfege echos . . . one of the joys of the car ride for me – and I think for the kids. I had sung, “Do, Do, Do” and Allison was being silly and deliberately sang the wrong last note, “Do,Do, Re” Carter adamantly corrected her saying, “Not Do, Do, Re . . . Do, Do, Do!” The exuberance with which he sang, Do, Do, Do – in correcting Allison was just so funny.

Tonight our scripture study was about prayer. I used the January 2005 Friend – there was a little prayer activity. We were discussing the different types of prayers, who says the different types of prayers, and what we might say in each prayer. We were taking turns pointing to different pictures and discussing them. Allison chose the picture of Blessing the Sick. I asked her who gives such a prayer. She said, ‘Prophets’. I said yes – that’s right! Who else gives such a prayer? She said, “Dads that wear prophet clothes.” That made me laugh out right!

Heel Wounds, Head Wounds, and HP's

It's been awhile since I've posted . . . I have bunches of pictures I've meant to upload - however I'll use the fact that our computer has been on it's deathbed the past few months as my excuse for blogging negligence. I've been pretty relaxed about the kids using the computer over the past few years - and it has served us well - but the keys have been picked off one too many times, the mouse stopped working, the battery is completely dead, and you have the jiggle the AC adapter to get intermittent power. I purchased a cheap AC adapter off of eBay hoping to extend the life of the computer for awhile longer - and to use it entirely as the 'kid computer' (I hope it arrives in the next few days) - but we ended up getting a new HP for Anthony and I. Yay for new computers! You don't appreciate the beauty of fast processing until you've been working at snail speed for so long! Life is good.

Life wasn't so good last Monday. Sunday night Allison and Carter were having 'quiet time' in their room, I was downstairs making dinner (we were having the missionaries over that night) and Anthony was having a Sunday afternoon snooze in the guest bedroom. I hear a crash and some crying - the crying lasted only a few seconds then stopped, I heard Anthony get up, and assumed he was taking care of everything. Then he shouted for me to come upstairs. He was holding Carter in the bathroom and blood covered half of his head. We put him in the tub to clean him up and discovered he had a big gash in the side of his head. I don't know exactly what happened - but we went into their room and they had pulled all the blankets out from under the bed - stacked them up by the closet door and then dumped all their toys out of their bins and stacked them up on top of the blankets to try to reach the books that were on the top shelf of the closet. Determined kids. Carter must have tried to climb up the contraption and had crashed. We took him to the clinic where they put 3 staples in his head. It has healed nicely this week - and Anthony is back at the clinic with the kids tonight to get the staples out. Carter's reaction to the whole ordeal surprised me though. He didn't cry! He cried for a few seconds and then calmly informed us again and again that his 'head broke'.

On Monday Alli and Carter were downstairs playing, I again - was in the kitchen, where I apparently spend most of my life . . . when Allison comes in with blood all over her foot. They had broken a glass candle holder downstairs and she stepped in it. We again went upstairs to clean up the blood and put bandaids on. Later that night when I inspected again I thought she might have a piece of glass stuck in her foot. I had Anthony hold her down and I tried to get it out with tweezers - but that went very badly and we gave up. The rest of the week she was walking on tiptoes - but she does that a lot anyway - and the wound had healed mostly and I wasn't sure there was glass in her foot. But Thursday night the wound opened up again and so I took her into the doctor on Friday. The doctor sent her down for x-rays and sure enough she had a piece of glass in her foot. The nurse and I held her down while the doctor expertly extracted the glass. Poor Allison! I feel aweful that glass was in her foot all week. We should have taken her in first thing. I think we are a little too conservative when it comes to seeking healthcare.

Aside from these mishaps we've been doing alright. Anthony has been working long hours these past few weeks and I've been trying to adjust.

Piano Recital and Tiny Town

Last night I had my piano recital. I was hoping we could have it outside in our backyard. We just had a patio poured this week and purchased a new digital piano . . . and I was so excited to have the recital on the porch. About 1:00 yesterday a big storm came in - thunder, lightning, rain - and so I sent an email out to everyone saying we would have to have the recital at the church. About 5:00 the skies suddenly cleared and it looked beautiful! I debated changing the location once again, worried about getting ahold of everyone . . . but it worked out perfectly! I was able to get ahold of everyone and the skies were beautiful!

It is always so fun for me at these recitals. I love hearing all my students play in one setting. They did so well. It was also Allison's first piano recital. She was very excited to play. She chose the three songs she wanted to play all by herself and we practiced a lot. The three songs she chose were Swining Monkeys, Busy Bee, and CDE Waltz. She was also a great help setting up. Since we chaged the venue last minute - things were a little crazy that last hour before the recital - but Allison and Carter helped put all the cookies and goodies on trays and set out blankets on the lawn for the kids.

This last week we also went to Tiny Town. Tiny Town is located in the mountains and it is a little miniature town. We were able to have a picnic, play at the park, and ride a miniature train.

Allison rode in the caboose on the train ride with all the other kids.

Just before the recital started . . . .

History

Tonight we had a fun family home evening. Mom sent me this link to Family Search - which has tons of activities that introduce families to the fun of family history. It's called the 'Summer of Sleuthing'. Tonight we learned about one of our ancestors - John Joshua Tanner. We just returned from Nauvoo and Winter Quarters this week - and it was fun to learn about him having just returned from the areas that he lived. The kids each had their 'sleuthing' magnifying glass and we went on a search for various items and pictures around the house while we learned about his life. This kids found a picture of the Kirtland temple with a bunch of coins and we talked about John Joshua's father who helped pay for the temple. The kids then found a bunch of seeds and we learned that the Tanner family stayed in Winter Quarters for several years to plant seeds and raise animals to help others who were traveling through. It's so fun to learn about our ancestors, and having enjoyed a week of history in Nauvoo and Missouri - these stories are seen in a whole new light for me. Allison is our self-appointed activity and treat chairperson. Every week for family home evening - she drags a chair into our closet - pulls out a bunch of friend magazines from the magazine boxes and flips through them until she finds a suitable activity. This week she found a Christmas tree wordsearch which we did together as a family. She chose ice cream as our treat.

Nauvoo is something else. It is a whole city of living history. What a joy it was to be immersed in it for a few days. Here are some pictures . . .

We got up bright and early one morning to go on a handcart trek. We confidently took out two handcarts - thinking it would be no sweat with the 6 of us . . . but we soon realized it wasn't quite as easy as we thought. Our plan of having the kids sit in the carts did not go over well. Carter refused and Alli let us know that she did not like the bumpiness. Emilyn and Camilla were true pioneers though. They didn't complain much . . . and in fact - Emilyn added her own level of authenicity by trekking through the fields shoeless.

Cute Camilla! I don't get to see my nieces very often and it was such a treat to be with them for a few days. Camilla is such a charmer. Everytime I would look at her, she'd give a coy little smile and snuggle shyly into her Mom.
Anthony's Aunt and Uncle are serving in the Nauvoo temple and they were kind enough to have us over for cookies and ice cream while we were there. They recently served in Russia and were able to give Tanner some advice as he's heading there on his mission in a few weeks. Joan served the most delicious ice cream. She said she combined equal parts of pinapple sherbet and vanilla ice cream - and then added fresh strawberries, bananas, and crushed pineapple. Yummy!
The favorite part of the trip for the kids was the pioneer park. Alli and Emilyn dressed up as pioneers and played in the pioneer house. Carter loved 9-pins and the ball games while the adults enjoyed some stilt and hoop races and graces. This was one of my favorite spots as well. It took me back to the time of doing tours through the one-room school house in North Logan - where we would play all of these pioneer games.
This is the end of Parley Street as it reaches the Mississippi River. We were able to witness Tanner's amazing rock jumping skills.

I was a little nervous about holding on to the oxen's horns. The tour guide told me it was safer to hold on to the horns rather than just stand there - so that I would know if he started to shake his head toward me. That wasn't very comforting.

On our way out to Nauvoo we stopped in Winter Quarters. This is a picture of the Winter Quarters temple.

Photos from Utah Trip

We had a wonderful trip to Utah last weekend. Dan graduated from BYU and Tanner went through the Logan temple in preparation for his mission to Russia. It was so nice to get together. We had a little photo op - realizing that this would be the last time we would all be together for several years.

It was so nice to see family in Logan after the temple session. We had a nice meal featuring Juniper Take Out's best - and Mom's amazing salads. I enjoyed working in the kitchen alongside Mom and the sisters the night before preparing . . . well actually I probably did less preparing and more playing - I was trying to multi-task and play Settler's at the same time. Anyway - it was truly refreshing to reunite with family. Grandma and Grandpa Watkins gave us a history that Grandpa wrote. What a treasure!

We spent Friday afternoon at a ropes course. We worked together as a family to accomplish various tasks. One task was to get from one side of a 'raging river' of grass to the other using planks and tree stumps. We had to do it saying 'banana' between each word. The boys and Natalie who all spoke spanish found themselves speaking spanish and putting banana between the words. It was pretty funny. Holly, Rex, and Tanner were all brave enough to try to jump off of a tree to try to catch a ring.

One of the highlights of the course was a giant swing. We had to pull each other to the top.

Anthony's acrobatics after the initial terrifying drop. He couldn't figure out where to put his hands after letting go of the rope . . . and he clung to the bar for dear life. We all thought something had malfunctioned - but soon he was doing tricks on the swing.

Allison and Emilyn took their turns on the rock wall.

After we all arrived Thursday morning - we headed to the zoo.

Giddy-up Horsie!

Other highlights of the trip: We enjoyed some tennis at the park, ate Aggie Ice Cream while watching Bedtime Stories at the condo, Mom's Sunday lesson on scripture study, conference jeopardy, which the guys won by the skin of their teeth - and a few technicalities.

Where your treasure is . . .

Yesterday I was teaching a piano student and her Mom was outside with the kids playing on the playset. Apparently Allison and her son Sam were playing 'pirates' - and Sam had just found a buried treasure. "I have a hundred gold coins! I'm rich!" he declared. Allison came back with - "Well, I have found 100 Dora and Diego movies!" That made me laugh. Now I know what her treasure is! :)

Easter and Baseball

We had a nice easter. The easter bunny forgot to get easter candy from the store until Saturday afternoon, and needless to say, all he could find was a bag of robin eggs and a 6 pack of Reese's Easter eggs. He ended up hiding all our hard boiled eggs we decorated Saturday afternoon, in addition to my 'Shaker Eggs' I use for nursery. The kids found most of them - although Monday night during FHE we found one we had missed. The Easter Bunny gave Carter 2 hats, an easter book, and a Diego Color Wonder book - and some plastic easter eggs that looked like different kinds of balls. The eggs were his favorite. You can see in the video what the easter bunny left Alli.

Allison and Carter went to the primary easter party Saturday morning. Anthony took them (I was practicing a musical number in the chapel) - and afterwards several people told me that Carter was a natural with the baseball bat they were using with the pinata. This week has been the week of baseball. He carries the bat around all the time - and wants to play any moment he can convince one of us to play with him.

And one other note - you'll see Allison insist on doing a 'bag story' in the baseball video. A few days ago I read an idea in a book where we put a bunch of random objects in a bag and the pull them out one at a time and use them to tell a story. She loves this game! We usually use a pillow case as the bag to hold bigger items.